30 poetry pins and needles

[Speug]

Hi, I really liked ‘Escape’ and ‘Anxiety’.

[Emily Bronte]

Thanks, Speug.

Still struggling to keep up.


Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

So much for being a city that doesn't sleep.
She will never belong to the night owls.
Tonight she is a ghost town until the late
crowd emerge and claim the territory
we avoid in daylight; interlopers on probation
until the sun rises. I don't have to be good.
I'll have a glass or two of wine
and sit and read and think
after a long day. No need to hurry
home to a husband in the suburbs.

[Emily Bronte]

Overheard on the bus

"You have sixty seconds to make me laugh
or I'll hang up on you."

I'll give them sixty days and they'll have broken up.

[kristalynn]

I really like 1989-1995-2016. Effective line break on return. Beads is really awesome, too.

[PClem]

Enjoying your thread - like the dog who isn't afraid of the known dangers of urban life but grass frightens him, The Ghost - so true of so many, isn't it? Love the imagined conversation between the Bronte sisters. Reconstruction - spilled berries as Pollock painting is a great image. Reflection in a wine glass - great musing. Anxiety - exactly. Enjoyed.

[anita.a]

Emily Bronte, I love your poems, 'To the girls...', 'Anxiety', 'Depression' and 'Hermit'. All of these are worth post-Napo drafts! But the best was 'Midnight', especially the lines that are superb are,
I draw curtains across the day
and climb under the covers,
ready to grasp the shining spirit
cord that lets me fly the dreamtrails.

[Emily Bronte]

Anita, Laurie and Kristalynn,

Thanks heaps for keeping the fluff coming.

The last ten are going to be tough this year.

I've caught up on some of my fluff debt but still have more to do.

Cheers,

Mari.

[Emily Bronte]

Indecision

I'm standing on a cliff
edge preparing to jump.
No, a volcano about to erupt.
My skin will glow with fire
before melting from my bones.
Or I could turn back
to the chilly moon and stars
that dart needles into my eyes.
For the moment, I like being here,
one foot in destruction, poised to flee.

[Dunc]

Mari

Newtown — Delighted you're a fan! I live in Alexandria, 15 minutes' walk away, so I Newtown all the time. (I paeoned it once, verse 1 going "As I walked out in Newtown / the street was choked with cars, / and students, goths and couples / crashed in and out of bars. / The narrow shopfronts roared with light, / the smells of Thaifood draped the night, / the buses scraped through gaps too tight, / as I walked out in Newtown.") Great borough!

Dear Earth — This is a great idea though the cyborg seems to be designed for Martian conditions raising the question why it would ever have intended to return to Earth anyway. Well worth a polish.

Hermit— "We are endlessly connected / but don't really see." Yup. As for losing or busting or replacing a phone, yup, as you say, that too's a pain in the whatever.

Brisbane — Where 'bouts in Oz are you? You've nailed Brizzie, by crikey! But Sydneysider though I am, I remember when Fortitude Valley was pubs, strip joints, brothels and drugs, and you'd be a mug to set foot off the main drags. It's much better these days.

on the Bus — N, having heard the tone of the demand, has the drop on me. But reacting to half a conversation on the bus, we've been there.

Indecision — Fire or ice, or better still, flight. A nice balance.

Great stuff!

Regards / Dunc

[Janet]

Hi Mari- have really enjoyed reading your thread. Anxiety's a strong piece, killer last lines. Loved the metaphors in Indecision. Seems these days some of the most extroverted people have Hermit attributes- that piece resonated, and really enjoyed: If my phone goes flat I might as well
be carrying a brick in my bag.

Great thread...Keep going!

[Arlene]

This last, on the edge, Indecision, continuing the sharp imagery in perfect unison with the thread.

[Emily Bronte]

Arlene, glad Indecision worked for you

Hehehe Janet, yeah it is like that with phones isn't it. Glad you are enjoying stuff here

Dunc,

HAHAHAHAHA loved your lines about newtown!!!!! perfect. Re Brisbane--I currently split my time between Brisbane and Sydney as I have been studying in Sydney. The contrast is interesting

[Emily Bronte]

Neon Still Life

It's not actually still.
The colour pulsates
in regular intervals
across the bridge.

Blue--flash!--white--flash!--red--flash!
like the people streaming across the walkway
below me to the football.

A lighted train passes to my left,
almost empty. Everyone's at home
or ready to dance the night away.
Maybe I'll go down and become
a human Friday night Neon sign.

[Emily Bronte]

Dear Death

Leave me alone for a while.
I don't have an invisibility cloak
to hide myself. Instead, I'll defy
you by courting disaster.
I'll cross the road against the light,
drink too much wine, sit up all night,
eat junk food. You'll be disgusted
at my lack of subtlety and give me up
as a bad job. I know your sense of irony
prefers the vegan who practices yoga.

[Word Weaver]

Great thread, Emily I'm especially fond of the sudden change from the cliff to a volcano in indecision. You are right on track. keep it up!