----- Original Message -----
From: "Max Richards" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2007 6:44 PM
Subject: snap 10 Jan: feathers
> These feathers?
>
> - picked up in the park
> when the morning sun
> brought out their sparkle.
>
> This would be from a magpie
> (local version, pert, musical),
> this from a harsh cockatoo,
>
> this with its speckles
> a crooning tawny frogmouth,
> or a loud kookaburra.
>
> They all had a sheen
> when I pocketed them -
> like the pebbles
>
> on a clear creek bed
> precious while wet only -
> indoors flat as flat.
>
> The rainbow lorikeet
> dead on the roadway -
> to stoop and pluck
>
> would have seemed
> to stoop too far.
> It dazzled still.
>
> This feather, kept apart,
> I brought from Ireland -
> dropped by one of the swans,
>
> soon counted, by the lake
> in Coole Park, no less.
> It lay for decades
>
> on my desk, making my talk
> less abstract, failing
> to lift me into song.
>
>
> 10 January 2007
>
> Max Richards
> Doncaster, Vic.
>
> [thanks to Alison and Randolph; welcome thanks to Anny and Joseph]
>
This is what I'd suggest:
These Feathers?
- Found in the park
when the morning sun
brought out their sparkle.
One from a magpie
(local, musical),
one from a harsh cockatoo;
this, speckled,
from a crooning frogmouth,
or a loud kookaburra;
and this, kept apart,
from Ireland - dropped
by one of the swans,
soon counted, by the lake
in Coole Park.
It lay for decades
on my desk, making my talk
less abstract, failing
to lift it into song.
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