Twenty Thirteen Sevens

[Dunc]

In the terrible depths they are Seven


August 2013
1. Consultation
2. Lorikeets at the Library
3. On 'The Casual Vacancy'
4. Never in Carthage
5. Blade Runner
6. The Essence of the Thing
7. Ulysses

February 2013
1. Light
2. On Reading Too Much Tennyson
3. Private Notebook (Tennyson)
4. Triolet: On the True Nature of Thunder
5. 'Tell those who will live'
6. Inferno, Canto 3
7. 'She's famous from Boston to Brittany'

January 2013

1. Casuarinas
2. Casuarinas II
3. Summer Time
4. Agamemnon to Odysseus
5. Title Not Required I & II
6. The Golden Age
7. Geryon

.

[Dunc]

7 January 2013



CASUARINAS

A little breeze
and casuarinas keen
on the sadness of day

on veiling webs
in empty windows
wild growths in the furrows

on the sky’s last blue
closing before the fall
of the rain and the sun

on true things broken
beauty forgotten
kindness despised

their soughing cry
for the cancer of time

  

[Jee Leong]

A susurrus of a poem, Dunc. A compelling start to the new year.

[Sorella]

Dunc,
Yessss! Antipodean flora, just what I need to brighten a foggy January day -- or wait!
These elegiac conifer-like scale-leafy windbreaks will not do much to dispel the gloom, will they... "kindness despised" -- you know how to remind me of the saddest thing I know in life, and so inevitable.
*reaches for the bottle, checks the time, sticks with coffee*

[beeswax]

Hi Dunc. I read this this morning and it was so beautiful I was inspired to join sevens.

[doomtop]

Hi Dunc, really enjoying Casuarinas. Recently I have found myself often contemplating the breeze and its effect on trees (and their leaves). And it has seemed to be a theme I've come back to throughout my life. While I can't claim familiarity with the Casuarina, I think I can relate to the beauty and sadness here.

[billdozer]

What a dark lament. "Keen" and the last line are wonderful. "Willow weep for me..." on the B side perhaps?

[Featherless Biped]

Dunc! Hope that you are staying cool in this miserable heat, and (it goes without saying) not aflame. Your casuarinas (beautiful word) are sweet and sad and simple. They're lovely trees, too; I'll have to hug the next one I see.

[new leaf]

Casuarinas remind me of equisetum, the common horsetail; both look eerily prehistoric, even older than the kind of sadness evoked in this poem.

on true things broken
beauty forgotten
kindness despised

Indeed, they have reason to mourn.

[Dunc]

Jee, Karin, Ann, doomtop, Bill, Rachael, Malinda

Thanks for your feedback - much appreciated. I went for a walk in beautiful weather the other day, only a tiny breeze, but when I got to where the casuarinas were soughing, the sound gave me prickles on the back of my neck.

[Dunc]

8 January 2013



CASUARINAS II

The bow of the air
draws out the noon in whispers
from the tree of strings.

  

[beeswax]

How the last line is drawn out, lengthened, by tree of strings -- musical and beautiful.

[JFN]

Dunc,

I had to look these up, and they are interesting looking shrubs. These two are a great start, particularly the S1 of the first.

Looking forward to more.

John

[pepperedmoth]

I very much liked II. I play violin; that helps. But--- just loved it. Thanks. Draws out the noon in whispers---

[Featherless Biped]

Lovely tributes, both. tree of strings works so much better than string of trees would.