on 12/1/05 8:56 AM, Patrick McManus at [log in to unmask]
wrote:

> Hi Alison and other Ozfolk -I was wondering did the tsunami actually hit
> australia?or was it other direction?
 
Only today did the morning papers not lead with tsunami stories as eight
dead in South Australian bushfires took page one. But several pages after
that cover many aspects ...
Our neighbours are Sri Lankan (the Tamil north) and have been out on
relief-collecting work constantly. I am about to coach their 13-year-old boy
in English and the first essay he is bringing me is headed Tsunami. (January
is meant to be holidays but, typical migrant family, education is always on
for their children.) Shops everywhere state 'this month's profits for
Tsunami relief'.

Excuse escapist nature of my Wed snap...Max

Long Lost Mike

Of all the fresh-faced youths in Auckland then,
Mike was the freshest after me.
Celtic blood? He was a Grogan,
my mother¹s dad a Donegal Guthrie.
Dreamers both of us, and he so shy,
the dreams he dreamed he kept from me.
He knew I was the great (white) hope
of New Zealand poetry.
Forty-five years on I hear from him:
far-north Auckland, Œrural delivery¹
address, just saying he¹d been given
my Melbourne details, good-day.

What story shall I send back? That I¹m still
a proud under-achiever? That would betray
my stubborn belief in my genius.
And you, Mike? What dream never went away?
Let me guess: you grow subtropical
fruit and vegetables and things hempen?
your friends up there are (many) Maori;
you hate the way the world has tended;
the Maori way has much to teach us;
we whites needn¹t have spoiled things,
but living down one¹s Celtic blood
can lead to splendid comminglings Š?
There¹s my guess and now I¹ll write:
send details of your story, Mike.


5 pm, Wednesday January 12, 2005

Max Richards
North Balwyn, Melbourne