I like the nostalgic tone, Max, how the form caries it…
Doug
On Feb 4, 2015, at 3:39 AM, Patrick McManus <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Ponyfish !was that a bar out in the Yarrow by a bridge ? or am I somewhere
> else -poor Max dumped in America a nightmare!
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> Behalf Of Max Richards
> Sent: 04 February 2015 07:15
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: is it wednesday yet? 'Ponyfish Island'
>
> - if so, here's my effort to persuade my wife to forsake Seattle
> and return to the pleasures of Melbourne.
> she is unpersuaded.Max
>
> Ponyfish Island
>
> Meet me on Ponyfish Island tonight,
> dearest. Though converging on it
> from all directions are city
> workers intent on making whoopee,
>
> you and I can sip our drink slowly,
> and eavesdrop, tut-tutting quietly
> about the younger generations
> in their narcissistic permutations.
>
> Upstream the Yarra looks so civil -
> ignore the sports stadias' many-headed evil.
> Downstream - maybe a glorious sunset
> redeems the commercial mindset.
>
> If a cloudburst is forecast, dear,
> we prudently won't meet there.
> A flooding surge of water down the Yarra
> once submerged Ponyfish and its bar.
>
> We'll smile benignly as we leave
> at the padlocks on the bridge rails.
> Copied from Paris, I believe.
> As if love padlocked never fails.
>
> Ours needs no hardware symbol.
> But meeting you mid-river on a ramble
> feels right to me, except that we're
> never apart, always set out together.
>
> Let's walk there now, to Ponyfish Island,
> and pause there in the heart of our homeland.
> Or take a tram if you prefer, streetcar
> of homely fulfilled desire.
>
>
> http://ponyfish.com.au
>
Douglas Barbour
[log in to unmask]
Recent publications: (With Sheila E Murphy) Continuations & Continuation 2 (UofAPress).
Recording Dates (Rubicon Press).
that we are only
as we find out we are
Charles Olson
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