Max you are building up quite an anthology thanks cheers P
-----Original Message-----
From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Max Richards
Sent: 26 January 2011 00:47
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: snaps: weekend
Snaps from our Weekend
The Newstead bridge over the Loddon
had sandbags beside it from last week.
The floods had moved north
by the time we turned up -
everywhere on fences and signposts,
tawny flotsam marked the flood level.
Newstead was busy - pub, stores,
Mechanics Hall and café.
Music all weekend, under canvas,
in churches, on the streets.
The Morris dancers practiced
handy to the pub. Old dogs guarded
the trays of old farm trucks.
'Philip Thomas, wire tamer' displayed
his art outside the grocer's shop.
Dark red rusty wire twisted into curves
spirals treble clefs animals and fish.
See him at work, chat him up. He predicts
another huge 'weather event' - soon.
*
His wife Gretel breastfed their infant
nearby. She said we must bring our pup
(ten-month Labrador), which she had bred,
to their property for a reunion with the mother -
and grandmother - and the latest pup.
We drove behind her on a dirt track
where water had cut them off for days.
Then a festival of dog antics
as yellow Labs claimed kin - rolled
and ran and wore each other out.
*
In the Uniting Church we recovered
sprawling at the back where the dog
wouldn't spoil the concert.
Harpist and fiddler played modest
Scottish and Irish melodies.
Michael Kennedy sang to his guitar
his own songs, one on Francis of Assisi,
one on the child graves at Pennyweight Hill
from the gold rush years near Castlemaine.
His listeners teared up.
Max Richards
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