A question for Jane
'A mind lively and at ease, can do with seeing nothing, and can see nothing that does not answer.'Austen, Emma
And in the raucosity of blogsthe avidity of trollsthe ubiquity of pornthe vidvidvidity of tubesthe facebookery of profilesthe aviary of twittervation —
can the mind still findthat space to stretch itself,is ease possible amongst such sticky webs —
or are we all half-fly now,wrapped in frantic, silken chat?
P. S. Cottier
My old typewriter
It sat upright, piano keyboard height,Keys sparkled, tip-tap order,I found, or someone did for me, I won't explain why,It was a Qwerty Who invented the neighbourhoodOf letters, fidget, digit, gadget.The Remington was always hot-to-trot, randy,You could hit hard, tantrum strength, writer's block,Desperation, until the bell rang,End of line, end of story, nobody heard,Not even the children in the schoolyard.
Now Gutenberg is sleeping, printing pressesAre next to a used-car lot, letters lying prone.
Peter Gebhardt
Perspective
Stick out your tongue,the right side of your mouth.Find a mirror.Don't bite down.No photographs, believe me.Breathing through the nosesend an email to a friendwho lives in her illness.
Help Douglass with his shopping.Fall into No Noise.Don't beg.Collect a prize & be puzzled.
Les Wicks
This suburb
This suburb — beginning, middle and end —was once entirely bushland.One hundred percent banksia and marri woodland.Or, that's what's claimed.______________So let's just pretend:No access roads, no shopping mall, no cinema.Nowhere for coffee, nowhere at all to spend.Just an unrelenting community of trees.The scrambled Jackson Pollock calligraphy of undergrowth.The cicadas' unceasing, seething unease._____Unviable, yet remarkably, it seemssome still have regrets.
Ross Jackson
P. S. Cottier is a poet and writer. She has worked as a lawyer, a university tutor, a union organiser and a tea lady. She wrote a PhD on animals in the works of Charles Dickens at the Australian National University. Her most recent book is a suite of poems called Selection Criteria for Death.
Peter Gebhardt is a retired school principal and judge. His most recent book is Black and White Onyx: New and Selected Poems 1988–2011.
Over 35 years Les Wicks has performed at festivals, schools, prison etc. He has been published in over 250 different magazines, anthologies and newspapers across 15 countries in nine languages. His tenth book of poetry is Barking Wings.
Ross Jackson is a retired schoolteacher from Perth. He has had poetry and short stories published locally and interstate.