Too generous, Andrew.
best from Max
During the encounter I kept thinking of Lawrence's Snake, determined not to have
something to expiate.
I wonder whether Douglas Stewart wrote his poem before
Judith Wright wrote:
The Killer
The day was clear as fire,
the birds sang frail as glass,
when thirsty I came to the creek
and fell by its side in the grass.
My breast on the bright moss
and shower-embroidered weeks,
my lips to the live water
I saw him turn in the reeds.
Black horror sprang from the dark
in a violent birth,
and through its cloth of grass
I felt the clutch of earth.
O beat him into the ground.
O strike him till he dies-
or else your life itself
drains through those colourless eyes.
I struck again and again
Slender in black and red
he lies, and his icy glance
turns outward clear and dead.
But nimble my enemy
as water is, or wind.
He has slipped from his death aside
and vanished into my mind
He has vanished whence he came,
my nimble enemy;
and the ants come out to the snake
and drink at his shallow eye.
Quoting andrew burke <[log in to unmask]>:
> I like Max's poem better. Andrew
>
> 2009/10/14 Caleb Cluff <[log in to unmask]>
>
> > Ah yes -
> >
> > The Brown Snake
> >
> > I walked to the green gum-tree
> > Because the day was hot;
> > A snake could be anywhere
> > But that time I forgot.
> >
> > The Duckmaloi lazed through the valley
> > In amber pools like tea
> > From some old fossicker's billy,
> > And I walked under the tree.
> >
> > Blue summer smoked on Bindo,
> > It lapped me warm in its waves,
> > And when that snake hissed up
> > Under the shower of leaves
> >
> > Huge, high as my waist,
> > Rearing with lightning's tongue,
> > So brown with heat like the fallen
> > Dry sticks it hid among,
> >
> > I thought the earth itself
> > Under the green gum-tree,
> > All in the sweet of summer
> > Reached out to strike at me.
> >
> > Douglas Stewart
> >
> >
> > On Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 10:55 AM, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]
> > >wrote:
> >
> > > Snake Snaps
> > >
> > > This is me watching the tail
> > > of the snake poking out from
> > > under our little front-garden hedge.
> > >
> > > Me phoning the Council who say
> > > phone State Government Wildlife
> > > who say phone the local snake-catcher.
> > >
> > > Me gripping the handle of my spade,
> > > encouraging Jason the snake-catcher
> > > please to come quickly.
> > >
> > > The snake quietly on the move
> > > passing gracefully up the path
> > > and under our wooden front step.
> > >
> > > Striking at the spade where I placed it
> > > to direct it away from the house.
> > > It turns, tongue still flickering,
> > >
> > > glides in full view, in the midday sun –
> > > note the tiger-like golden stripes –
> > > along the concrete-block garden wall.
> > >
> > > Finds a gap between blocks,
> > > entering almost fully, turning
> > > back to stare at me over its body.
> > >
> > > Quits our front garden to explore
> > > our neighbours’ garden with its
> > > many green hiding-places.
> > >
> > > This is the dense green ground-cover
> > > under which it lurks invisible.
> > > Now its tiny head peeks out.
> > >
> > > Here is Jason in his van, with his
> > > gardening equipment and
> > > his snake-catching gear and stout boots.
> > >
> > > He lays out the snake bag wide open,
> > > prods where we point – there it goes.
> > > Jason lunges, falls, cries out, gets up,
> > >
> > > lunges and engages
> > > with both long-handled tools,
> > > raises aloft his captured one,
> > >
> > > poses for photographs. Adult tiger,
> > > almost a metre long, keen to defend itself.
> > > Into the bag with it, tied with a red cord.
> > >
> > > Jason has been handling snakes since he was eight.
> > > Now he’s licenced. He will release our snake
> > > miles away, in the reserve by Mullum Mullum Creek.
> > >
> > > He expects to be called out for snakes
> > > from October tenth each year.
> > > (This was the ninth of October.)
> > >
> > > Maybe the morning's mowing of the park
> > > had sent the snake over the road to our place.
> > > Where there's water and frogs there are snakes.
> > >
> > > His fee is a hundred dollars for the visit,
> > > ninety for the snake. My wife pays happily
> > > and she has some good snaps. See?
> > >
> > > [sorry can't send her snaps]
> > >
> > > Max Richards
> > > Doncaster, Victoria
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > This email was sent from Netspace Webmail: http://www.netspace.net.au
> > >
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Andrew
>
> 'Beyond City Limits', pub. ICLL @ ECU, available at topnotch indie bookshops
> - list at http://hispirits.blogspot.com/
>
------------------------------------------------------------
This email was sent from Netspace Webmail: http://www.netspace.net.au
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