Hi all.

Carole, Yes it is a disaster, no better for the knowledge that other parts
of the country have lost lives and homes on a greater scale. It's a case of
ringing home a couple of times each day to check with my folks about the
state of play. They report visible flame from not too far enough away, and
wait for changes in the wind to know if fear needs to turn into panic.

Grassy - affectation acknowledged - the least I could aim for is consistency
- apologies. It is a habit I have formed to at least do the draft without
caps. Sometimes on review I do the sentence thing, but my inclination is not
to. If it si the worst, then perhaps that isn't so bad. I've banged some
caps into the revision.

Christina - I think/hope I've improved the poem on revision - absence of red
wine in the system makes for clearer thought sometimes LOL - 2 days ago we
woke to a grey world and a soup of smog. The fires that were burning then
are some 200 - 200 miles from Melbourne, but their smoke came to us and
stayed for a day. It really brought it home in the bleakest of ways. I
wanted to say something about it, but couldn't really think what. The news
from home of visible flame and immediate threat sort of forced a few words.
Not really possible to do justice, I don't think, but small world
personalisation makes it a little more real, perhaps (I don' really think
our old cricket pitch will burn - as it is right in front of the house, it
better not! The orchards where I rode my bike to pick fruit and earn
pocket-money, however, are gone.

Ann - Thank you. I seem only to be able to write about big tragedies by
finding a link fairly directly back to myself - the enormity sort of
overwhelms me otherwise. It's very distressing as so many of the fires are
deliberately lit, everywhere is so vulnerable and dry after 6 years of
general drought, and such a long dry season still to come. There may be
worse days ahead. We shall hope for the best and buy breathing apparatus,
no?

Cheers and thanks to everyone for comments. I'm off tomorrow for a weekend
by a swimming pool, escapism always works well in a crisis.

Frank

The Tales of Faust poetry page can be found at:
http://www.tales-of-faust.com/


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