Thursday, June 26, 2014

Painting by Paige Preston Byrne (Can Serrat)
Frill-necked Lizard

he's been knocking his knees
at the ant-hill ball
collects his hat and coat
with a flick of tongue
how smart he looks
in his blue suede shoes,
diamontees & pleats


it's wonderful to think
that he's all leather
feisty
not yet skinned





LIangardaix Volant-Nu

ha estat colpejant els genolls
en el ball formiguer
recull el seu barret i l'abric
amb un moviment de la llengua
que sembla intel.ligent
amb les seves sabates blaves de camussa,
diamants i plecs.

es meravellos pensar
que es tot de cuir
lluitador
encara no esqueixat









 


Silverfish



Not as lucky as a Las Vegas dollar                                    
Painting by Paige Preston Byrne (Can Serrat)

nor as silver,
but if you look inside paneled rooms
there may be several silverfish
touring endlessly in the house
of a miser or in one of those 19th century
cottages where the rain soaks North Somerset,
bookshelves covered in trench coats.

You know that silverfish chew into glue,
plaster, paint, photos, sugar, coffee,
hair, carpet, clothing, dandruff,
book bindings and paper (and that's
a lot to get through in a week!)

Imagine one slippery silverfish
in the musty library of a French poet
travelling through paragraphs of Reverdy,
John Donne, Simone De Beauvoir or Sartre,
his hunger moving toward simile and speech,
words curling into little white ropes
and lifting from the page,
one letter at a time.





Peixets de plata

No tant afortunat com un dòlar de Las Vegas
ni tant plateixat
pero si mires dins de les sales amb panells
pot haver diversos peixets de plata
voltant sense parar a casa
d’un avar o en una casa del segle XIX
en la pluja que amara North Somerset,
prestatgeries cobertes de gavardines.

Saps que els peixets de plata masteguen cola,
guix, pintura, fotos, sucre, café,
pel, catifes, roba, caspa,
enquadernacions i paper (i és a dir,
molta feina per una setmana!)

Imaginat un peixet de plata relliscós
a la biblioteca humida d’un poeta francès
viatjant a través dels paràgrafs de Reverdy,
John Donne, Simone de Beauvoir i Sartre,
la seva fam es mou cap al símil i la parla,
les paraules es cargolen en petites cordes blanques
i les lletres es desenganxen de la pàgina una a una.









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Bounty

Bounty
Prose Poetry

The Five Lives of Ms Bennett

The Five Lives of Ms Bennett
A Family Saga

The Ozone Cafe

The Ozone Cafe
White Collar Crime

The Last Asbestos Town

The Last Asbestos Town
Available from Amazon

Evangelyne

Evangelyne
Published by Australian Poetry Centre, Melbourne

of Arc & Shadow

of Arc & Shadow
Published by Sunline Press, WA

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MBA (Wrtg) ECowan

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Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Helen Hagemann holds an MA in Writing from Edith Cowan University, has three poetry books: Evangelyne & Other Poems published by Australian Poetry, Melbourne (2009) and of Arc & Shadow published by Sunline Press, Perth (2013). Bounty: prose poetry is published by Oz.one Publishing in 2024. She has three novels published The Last Asbestos Town (2020), The Ozone Café (2021) and The Five Lives of Ms Bennett a result of her Masters degree at ECU (2006), is published by Oz.one Publishing (2023).

Helen Hagemann MBA (Wrtg): ECowan

Helen Hagemann MBA (Wrtg): ECowan
Author & Poet

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