(from) THE STUNNED MULLET
lips bruised blue
from the impact of the shore
form words you applaud
because, after all, a fish is speaking
it's perfunctory though,
like the scattered clapping
a bronze medal at the Olympics gets
as you just pass muster
under a distant benign regard
only the fish thinks odd,
John Forbes 1950-1998
I didn't know John Forbes was dead, I have a Selected
Poems and it came out when he still alive. Why do so
many Australian poets die young? I remember looking at
an anthology organised chronologically, and the last
three or four names were all followed by closed
brackets. Mike Dransfield, who was undoubtedly a major
talent, Charles Buckmaster, probably too young to do
much really good stuff, Martin Johnston, and then
people from previous generations like Seaforth
McKenzie and others...
It's a sad waste. Does it say anything about the
position of those who write poetry in Australia, or is
that making too much of it?
Cheers
Scott
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(from) THE STUNNED MULLET
lips bruised blue
from the impact of the shore
form words you applaud
because, after all, a fish is speaking
it's perfunctory though,
like the scattered clapping
a bronze medal at the Olympics gets
as you just pass muster
under a distant benign regard
only the fish thinks odd,
John Forbes 1950-1998
=====
"Why is it not possible for me to doubt that I have never been on the moon? And how
could I try to doubt it? First and foremost, the supposition that perhaps I have
been there would strike me as idle. Nothing would follow from it, nothing be
explained by it. It would not tie in with anything in my life... Philosophical
problems occur when language goes on holiday. We must not separate ideas from life,
we must not be misled by the appearances of sentences: we must investigate the
application of words in individual language-games" - Ludwig Wittgenstein
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