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1. The Great Wall of China
2. The Double
3. Tree Worship
4. Self / Counterself
5. Vastation
6. Two Falls
7. Featherston
8. Dire Straits
9. Featherstone
10. Legacy
11. Concepts Cross in Mist
12. Not everyone can get an 'A'
13. Marooned
14. Advice on Essay-writing
15. Ghost Stories
16. Class Discourse
17. Research Assumptions
18. Pity what you can’t change
19. Featherston Tales
20. I can’t even tell
21. Cairo the Victorious
22. Feb 4. Disappointment
23. Trans-Tasman Relations
24. Life in the Tararuas
25. Coral Burrows
26. Delphi
27. Mercator’s Projections
28. Forest & Demarcation Zone
29. Mercator & Nostradamus
30. Family Portrait
31. Time-slips
32. Never give up
33. End of Term

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Never give up

Hospital at Night

when you
get home after an undisclosed
absence abroad (say seven days)
to find your life in
chaos wife in hospital note
in red ink left on
the coffee table explanations given
gratis by your father who
can’t hear the doorbell nor
is he aware of any
of the names of any
of the main protagonists it’s
a rainy night and nothing
for it but to drive
to the hospital (wherever that
might be) and fight for
parking in the truncated parking
zone – crowded out by their
new building – make your way
to the curtained alcove hone
in on the source of
disturbance see her hear her
voice breathe deeply understand the
cat’s hysterical reaction but transcend
it hug her tell her
about the presents you’ve brought
back for her leave her
behind eventually having been seen
(not moved) by the doctors
then go home
to sleep

•

Family Portrait

McClosky Family Gathering (1965)

17 people

6 in the front row
7 in the second row
4 in the back row

7 ties – 1 bowtie
corsages in 3 pockets
suits best frocks

staring out at the camera
with thick-rimmed glasses
beehive hairdos

prosperous
not comfortable
chairs grate on concrete

at the edge of the lawn

•

Forest & Demarcation Zone

Doris Frohnapfel: "Forest and demarcation zone
in the border area of Saariselkä (FIN)" (2003)

pine-trees on a hill
shadowing further lines

of trees
snow on the ground

the branches
fence

open plan
big enough squares

to let out mice
small birds

but not let in
the larger predators

saplings grow
despite the weather

some have fallen down

•

Delphi

The Delphic Oracle


"still busy accumulating influences"
- Lawrence Durrell

Aesthetically there is nothing much to see

except itself

a place of rich transgressions, tears

& insanity

It is built on two enigmas

neither decipherable

a sort of mute challenge

•

For once the sea

seems diminished

a light wheezy creaking

like a man rowing across water

Apollo killed the Dragon

& left the corpse

of the gigantic dead beast to rot

•

The atmosphere is so pure

one hears the stroke of his great wings

all other considerations seem confused

Once again the historians

begin to stammer

Is not truth two-sided?

While one is uneasy

•

it is not with a sense of fear

so much as a sense of premonition

One has sudden moments of panic

What is here, one feels

is intact in its purity

The long winding roads leading away

coil like the sacred serpent

towards the centre of the earth


[after Lawrence Durrell, Spirit of Place. Ed. Alan G. Thomas (1969)]

•

Life in the Tararuas

The Tararua Ranges

The colder weather is bringing the beasts down from
the heights. I heard both wolves and the mountain lion as I
crossed to my cabin last night.

I am still here, helping in the kitchen, driving cattle, and
riding four or five times a day.

•

You would be amused if you could see our cabin just now.
There are nine men in the room and three women.

For want of
seats most of the men are lying on the floor; all are smoking,
and the blithe young French Canadian who plays so
beautifully and catches about fifty speckled trout for each
meal, is playing the harmonica with a pipe in his mouth.

•

All the hilarity of the house has returned with Evans.

He claps people on the back,
shouts at them, will do anything for them, and makes
perpetual breeze.

A little case of
suspicious appearance was smuggled into the cabin from the
wagon, and heightens the hilarity a little, I fear.

•

Evans flatters me by
saying that I am “as much use as a man;” more than one
of our party, I hope, who always avoided the “ugly” cows.


[after Isabella Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains (1879)]

•

Feb 4. Disappointment

The North Pole (1909)

For nine days they struggled
sometimes hungrysometimes fed
often they were thirsty
always thirsty

In the harshness of the winds
they sought the sun
his stars had been favourable
his ponderings jerked off into dreams

My throat was bleeding from over-smoking
amongst hummocks of ice
that looked like tombstones to me
I hope we don’t sink during the night

The uncivilised brain is confused
by the civilised
his guns and rifles were to them
a sore temptation

under a drift of snow


[after Violet Clifton, The Book of Talbot (1933)]

•

I can't even tell

Good Night, and Good Luck (2005)

what colours
these are
in the dark

everyone knows
that he’s a
patriot

you guys
go too far
sometimes

anything
can happen
any time

she’s fine
she’s
fine

let it go
can’t you see
you’re on safe

ground?

•

Pity what you can't change

The Social Network (2010)


“I’m CEO, bitch”
– The Social Network

How can one defuse
such personalities?

The girl with a grating voice
in your morning language class

The Machiavel manager
whose own thwarted career

as writer & researcher
has choked & foundered here

Deception is one way
Listen to what they say

with feigned sincerity
Perhaps you’ll start to see

admire what you despise
open – or shut? – your eyes

•

Class Discourse

Jacques-Louis David: The Death of Socrates (1787)

The unexamined life
is not worth living
said Socrates

Who was Socrates?
Does anybody know?
Not quite

Near enough
A Greek philosopher
400 BC or so

& Socrates said
that he was tapped
to search for truth

because he knew
that he knew nothing
but was interested

in everything
Does anyone
know anything?

That’s the point, I guess
What am I trying to say?
What are we here for?

To score you
a better-paying job?
hand on the art of

bullshitting?
teach you to
“think critically”?

I suppose that’s it
– not that it’s teachable –
to encourage you

to think it through
for yourselves
’coz we all know how much

that skill is in demand
in the outside world
Yeah!

•

Advice on Essay-Writing

"Walk over the rice-paper, Grasshopper ..."


“Sometimes the best performance is lost on the wrong audience.”
– Jack Kirby, Mr Miracle

I had a couple of questions
about the essay
I was hoping you’d clarify
I feel I covered
all these points
in the workshop yesterday
for the record, though

How formal does it
have to be?
not very formal
If I'm doing a poem
which isn’t based
on an anthology poem
can I substitute references to other texts?

No
How should I format
those references?
I'm only interested in discussion
of poems from the anthology
You don't need a reference
for them

My creative process in
coming up with this poem
was honestly not
two pages worth
so what's the minimum length
the essay should exceed?
2 pages

Do I have to include
an introduction
body & conclusion?
Lacking a thesis question
& points to argue
I'm finding this a difficult model
to follow

It just needs to make sense
What time on Friday
is this portfolio due?
when the office closes
I think that should be all for now
I would've asked earlier today
at the tutorial

but I totally forgot

•

Not everyone can get an 'A'

How to save the World and Find True Love ... (2006)

I like A’s
she tells me
with a confiding smile
becoming the ‘special student’
in the class
the 'writer'
in a flock of sheep

Ideas for a play
for stories
for an auto-
biography
I never knew my grandmother
my mother
didn’t treat me

like a daughter
but as
one of the people she knew
My father
published a book
at his own expense
then watched it languish

when it could have
saved the world
I’d like to save the world
Me too
I’m not quite sure
how to go about it
though

(esp. on salary)

•

Legacy

Micheal Giddens : After Hearing a Bach Fugue (1924-29)

Yesterday when I got up
I couldn’t stand up straight
rolling like a sailor
skin clammy & cold
but managed to admit
the cat
& lead her to her bowl

Food poisoning?
The day before
I’d had a most disreputable pie
– bacon & egg –
from the heater tray
at the café
but would it wait this long?

It wore off gradually
Now, sitting in the dark
eyes closed
trying to “meditate”
(whatever that means)
the image fixed
in front of me

a wall of logos
wires radiating out
from SIGMA 6
& www
the chatter in my head
won’t dissipate
Far from self-centred

I feel upside-down

•

Dire Straits

Dire Straits: Money for Nothing (1985)

How many of us
are servicing a debt
instead of piling up
possessions?
Who do they belong to?
Well, the bank
I guess

Every month the rent must
come out
bills expenses petrol
just enough to cover that
Not quite
No margin for
disaster

Doctor’s visits?
Dentists?
What a laugh!
They don’t come into
our computations
Then the interest rates
go up

Nights
spent calculating
how to live
on nothing
Never spend a dollar
instead
go on a spree

of cafés
bookshops
treats
stupid crap-headed
investments
Life ground
in the straits

between the two

•

Two Falls

Vertigo

I asked the Doctor
to clean out my ears
with his steel syringe

The sensation was bizarre:
a rush of blood to the head
like the sea breaching a dike

At last, success!
A mighty plug of wax expelled
The inner ear controls your balance, though

As I came out into the light
I put my sole down hard
where there was nothing

except the edge
of a concrete path
The pain was sudden & excruciating

It hurt so much
that my body anaesthetised itself
but I knew when the bruises

started to form
like a layer of ash between
two strata of muscle

I’d really feel it

•

Yesterday my father stepped back
from raising the flag on his front stoop
into thin air

He fell on his back
on the concrete path
& couldn’t get up

None of his strategies worked:
rolling to one side
clutching at the stone wall

for leverage
calling for help
There was no-one there to hear

At last a neighbour came out
& helped him up
They managed to clear enough space

in the books & magazines
& papers on his bed
for him to lie down

He’s back on his feet this morning, though

Falling Leaves

•

Self / Counterself

Aby Warburg: Mnemosyne-Atlas (1924-29)


Annahme des Kunstwerkes als etwas in Richtung
auf den Zuschauer feindlich Bewegtes
– Aby Warburg (27 August, 1890)

[Theory of the work of art as something hostile
moving towards the beholder]

I wish that I were dead
sometimes
It pops into my head
in just those words
I wish that I were dead

Daunting lists of jobs to do
small pettifogging duties
People whose persistence
wears you down
break up the thought

A hard thing to acknowledge
but someday it will happen
The self that sees
itself
creates a third

but is that me?

•

The Double

Dante Gabriel Rossetti: How They Met Themselves (1864)

I’m conscious of myself
watching myself
when people tell me things
you’d normally react to
somehow
a tear a frown
a smile

I cannot accept
she writes
this grade
Even in the assignment
there are no markings
A smile
& silence

sitting at the back
not reading
when her turn comes
seldom turning up
& when she does
a smile
& silence

I harden up my act
of teacherly indignation
Or is that back to front?
Polish the carapace
while inside
feeling nothing?
Nothing to be said

Nothing to say

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