Max, it was indeed the exotic place names which initially intrigued me. Then the rhyme
with the cicadas which plague this area every 13 to 17 years, the last major
manifestation being 2004. Gourmets were making snacks out of them.
I note that there are Australian cicadas and wonder about how they differ from the
locusts you describe.
Barry
On Thu, 1 Jan 2009 07:01:45 +1100, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>I expect Caleb, after he has recovered from his party, to give us an update on
>the locusts.
>I tinkered with the report rather too much for it to be a true 'found poem'.
>I fear it ended up flippant as well as flat.
>In truth, as I backchannelled Kasper, it was the litany of aussie place names
>that intrigued me.
>Also I like to send items that will impress you Northerners with the seasonal
>contrast.
>
>At sunset, the last of 2008, my wife and I watched lightly clad family groups
>stroll out on St Kilda Pier. A few bathers frolicked in the tide.
>If we had waited the fairy penguins would have swum to the breakwater beyond the
>cafe, climbed the rocks to their shelter spots, and maybe we would have seen a
>native water rat or two.
>A sign in English and Japanese tells us the sanctuary is subsidised by the
>sister city of Obu (Obu?). A Japanese family pointed me to a crevice between
>rocks where one penguin was already stationed.
>By the pier five police vehicles were lined up, and the force was in force
>waiting for troublesome revellers, or by their presence taming them. I saw a cop
>give out a bottle of water to a deserving case. Water - much to be said for it.
>
>Driving home via Docklands and the city centre we saw hundreds of pedestrians
>all dressed in light white clothing heading for the stadium for a 'massive dance
>party'. If you arrived not in white you could choose to spend up to $155 on
>white garments, or turn back. Fireworks had begun here and there as we slunk
>home and went to bed early.
>Happy 2009, everyone.
>Max
>
>Quoting Douglas Barbour <[log in to unmask]>:
>
>> It's a found poem, Kasper, &, as such, must pretty well stick to the
>> original news story.
>>
>> I actually found the dry scientific discourse itself frightening
>> enough. And what Max has done by breaking it up into a poetic form is
>> to call attention to it in a way that reading it in the newspaper
>> cannot do; in the still not dead hope that reading a poem invites us
>> to pay attention in a more focused manner than reading journalistic
>> prose does.
>>
>> Just how bad is it, Max?
>>
>> Doug
>> On 30-Dec-08, at 4:58 PM, kasper salonen wrote:
>>
>> > I found this much too drab. as prose, fiction as well as non-, this
>> > wouldn't
>> > be bad; as a poem it's dry & pointless. maybe I'm missing something.
>> > the
>> > utter lack of any hint of lyricism makes me feel like I'm wasting my
>> > time.
>> >
>> > and the ending..?
>> > is this whole thing supposed to be postmodern somehow? I'm guessing
>> > no. not
>> > my cuppa, or my idea of poetry.
>> >
>> > KS
>>
>> Douglas Barbour
>> [log in to unmask]
>>
>> http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
>>
>> Latest books:
>> Continuations (with Sheila E Murphy)
>> http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=664
>> Wednesdays'
>> http://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-from-aboveground-
>press_10.html
>>
>> Holy hath beris
>> As rede as any rose
>>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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