Pomes

My previous appearance to read lyrics at the That Poetry Thing  Big Open Mic night was a great success.  For me, this time was a letdown.  Maybe it was my poetry (...) or maybe the reading which was pretty rushed or the writing which could be obscure.  But then I did particularly like a few lines.  The lyric was Sub dance, about AUKUS and more, so these passages tickled my fancy: "China score / restore war / Ever ready / silly, heady / Steady Eddie / Blind Freddie / Unsteady, spaghetti / sweaty, machete / Follow the leader / eager beaver / Ever eager / half-wit believer" or "History says it / Keating runs it / 'Nam reminds us / Afghan backs it / Mid-East fears it / Israel shows it / US dreams it / Aussie teams it / Lopsided, little prided / Ever guided, poorly sighted" or my fave "Labor once noble / still dreaming of trust / But lost and quiet / weedy, seedy / More sad than bad / But thus we ebb".  There were some very good new poets that impressed me.  Moral decathlon gave modern commentary from the 10 commandments.  Chris had one referencing Nietzsche called Dragon scales.  Quantum soup intrigued.  Lauren, Zoe, Myra, others; I took very poor notes.  I was interested to note the nature of the language, mostly free of rhymes but with structure.  Domestic violence is all the rage as an issue, but still I was stunned by two poets on it and the host concurring with their experiences.  Worrying.  There were the obvious long-termers with more serious awareness of form who impressed others in the know.  And good on them.  The far shores of any art are mostly in the awareness of the informed.  Nonetheless, interesting.

The That Poetry Thing Open Mic night was at Smiths.