Settle. The city is quietly occupied, the day protected – as though something must be done. Watch a screen by all means, but first gather friends, and walk to the shops to lubricate the day. Or hit the streets, if you choose – to enjoy unexpected sunshine, and the hum, like a ball hissing throughContinue reading “Before we save the daylight”
Tag Archives: Melbourne
You can’t read in traffic
Stuck in horrendous traffic on the way to work yesterday, I began to reflect on the irony that, as someone who spends most of my life talking about reading and writing, I have remarkably little time to read or write. This is what those thoughts generated.
August
I gather moments like raindrops, like snowdrops: these microscopic buds of spring tricked by sun to come out, one by one; I see how hesitant can be can be the grandest glimpse of things and sing. I catch the way your moments dance from distance – yetContinue reading “August”
Westgate Pulses/Don’t Phase Me: After Steve Reich
The sun shines on Wyndham
The Antarctic wakes us with its morning missive blowing. Swaddled and bubbling, children shiver across the road. Crossing guard, I open my smile, bouncing frozen legs to warm them. To cross the road like a child, I must race and look not to the side. What winter brings will soon be known; the sun stillContinue reading “The sun shines on Wyndham”
10 Ways to Embrace the Ring Road
Embrace it. No other time of day can you sit still, without compunction. Here schedules mean nothing. You may be late; that cannot be stopped. Yet you can stop. You can look at clumps of grass and broccoli gums in wetlands and wonder how they looked before this road was even thought. You can watchContinue reading “10 Ways to Embrace the Ring Road”
Redeem the Commute
Keilor-bound at the wheel, a man plucks his middle brow over the hill. Trucks speak in whistling brakes; cars speak in blinkers; billboards speak in covered-up breaths and we, doubting ourselves, tremble forth. Across gorges and bridges, organ-pipes hum in the silent chorale of a wasted commute. Gold glints through gum-trees; grace glints in mirrors.Continue reading “Redeem the Commute”
The Long Drizzle
Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote, The droghte of March hath perced to the roote… (Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales) Finally the clothes are dry, the air is dry, the leaves fall in their way. Finally April ends with such crispness and we emerge, knowledge of winter on the edges of skin yet our bodiesContinue reading “The Long Drizzle”
Street Camping
We watched, static in our waiting spots, lights red, traffic backed up Queensberry Street, as the purple tent, pegless, half air-borne, somersaulted across the road and stopped at the stilled bumper of a nearby car. The car was motionless, like ours, yet not waiting to start. Content, the purple tent rested, royal, carefree in thisContinue reading “Street Camping”
Last Light: For the Winter Solstice
On the shortest day, I walked down to the garden where, stretched out across the grass, the out-turned fingers of peace received theContinue reading “Last Light: For the Winter Solstice”
The Consolations of Writing 