Ginos
Of course she was late.
Long black, thanks.
The chairs sat in utter suspense.
When she came
the moment was precious with rage.
Cornered, she smiled in defence,
wavered for a while
between Madam and Eve,
but then the lipstick
stuck to her words
and I saw nothing but red.
It all ended where it began:
Ginos
The Extinction of the Phoenix
It happened fast.
One was trapped in fact.
Another talked over and done with.
A third one appointed to the past.
Others were shot
by the irreversible arrow of time.
The last survivors died
under the sceptoscope of doubt.
But one escaped
into the safety of imprisonment
every flame stripped from his wings.
A legendary pet
inside the cage of myth
a fire-extinct species
in an imaginary Zoo.
He has no chance
and yet he flaps his wings
as if he were to fly.
There are no flames
and yet he still looks burnt.
There's no escape
and yet he pecks the locks
as if a door would open.
His upkeep, though, is easy.
He feeds on words
and other crumbs of resurrection.
He drinks the tears he sheds.
He weeps, it seems, for us
his captor's sake
who know not what's inside
and what's outside
of a cage.
Outback
First it was just the knuckle of stone
the gravel of sun grinding the way
the persistent corrugation of heat
the uneven of hills
and a far away rock face
slapped by the light.
Then it was trickle of shade
the random dispersion of trees
the tightening noose of horizon
the redness clenched into a fist of stone
the slow erosion of contour
the final failure of light.
But now it is
this thin tent pitched against the dark
the stump of silence,
the closeness at hand
the uncertainty of us
and even this feral fire
under the crackling stars.
The Maritime Museum
I
For some it is simply
a memorial to the day
Australia discovered itself
hooked on an anchor,
trapped in the net
of longitude and latitude
and hauled on board
of this world,
a reminder of the day
when the first bowsprit
cut the horizon
and white sails
billowed like shrouds.
II
For others it is
the long line of boat, float, raft, craft,
kayak, catamaran and canoe,
of barge and barque
ocean liner and steamship
pointing to the inverted figurehead
The Rottnest Museum
It was too cloudy today to swim.
I went to the museum instead,
sampling the island’s past.
I read the texts:
The first sailors mistook
the quokkas for rats.
There was much mistaking then.
I looked at the old photographs:
all black and white,
the dark faces startled
even now.
At last I saw the chains
imprisoned behind a layer of glass.
When I left it had started to rain.
From Buddha in Honey
Sixth Admonition:
If you watch your words
you are a Buddhist.
If your words watch you
you are a poet.
Your only choice is
write or wrong.
In either case
take the middle path
to the extreme.
The Plagues in WA
cane toads invading from up north
die-back coming from the south
locust swarming from the east
seas rising in the west
skin cancer descending from above
salt oozing from below
but the worst,
the worst of all
is complacency,
spreading from within.
Poetry Prizes
2000 First Prize for ‘It was you,’ Festival of Love Poetry, WA State Literature Centre, WA
2000 ‘For my Mother,’ Significant Merit, Southern Cross Literary Competition, Ballarat Writing Council, VIC
2001 First Prize, Write Away Poetry Competition, State Literature Centre, WA
2002 ‘Buddha in Honey’ Commended Entry, Newcastle Poetry Prize National Anthology, NSW
2008 First Prize C.J. Dennis Literary Award, ‘The Earth from Space’
2009 ‘Maritime Museum,’ Highly commended at the Bruce Dawe National Poetry Competition
​
​
Commended and published poems
​
2000 ‘Boyagin Rock’ Highly Commended, Banjo Paterson Writing Award, Banjo Paterson Arts Council
2004 ‘Rottenest Museum’ short listed for Tom Collins Poetry Prize, Tom Collins Writers Centre,
2005 ‘Ginos’ included in FAWWA 70th Anniversary Anthology ‘Lines in the Sand’
2006 'Outback’ one of three poems selected for West Australian Anthology: ‘Weighing of the Heart,’ OOTA
2008 ‘The Plagues in 2007,’ Commended entry Peter Cowen 2008 Patrons Prize
2008 Poem ‘Perth’ selected for ‘Filed of Ideas’ Installation in Wolfs Lane, Perth
2009 12 Poems from ‘West East,’ selected for master class with John Kinsella (The Next Stage)
2009 'Salt’ selected for dotdotdash
2010 ‘The Conspiracy of Crows’ selected for Indigo Journal, WA