I remember this place
Before the rain
The ruddy red brown
Of that dusty plain
But witness it now
That the rain has come
In the shapelier state
Of that lonesome gum

The river dry
With its sandy bed
Like an empty vein
That’s been cut and bled
Is now running fast
And filled to the brink
But to its desert home
It will flow and sink

Many times now
I’ve seen this occur
In the heaviest wet
When things are a blur
To those dry summer days
‘Neath the hot centre sun
When the shadows are tall
And the burning is done

First published in “Barking Dogs”, from
The Writers For Radio Project, Alice Springs 1995

accept there is application
birthing/multiplying thoughts
from sublime visions
into letters, words and sentences
then crafted essays by great people
conveying revelations/ideas
in manifestoes, legislation,
doctrines, ideologies, philosophies
documented
from the past, to now and tomorrow:
for future generations

sometimes poetry

First published in “New Poets 19”,
by Friendly Street Poets (AUS), 2018.

when we were seated
there was you
and
sedimentary timelessness
with a wash of luminosity
whispered accord
and approving glances
as at
the arrival of
electric lamp light
on ancient streets
at the corners of our ancestry
and i believed thereafter
you and i belonged
as if in a tapestry
synthesized metaphysically
framed indestructibly
and
it has lasted
in framed
memorized
tuned heartbeat
and shall do
        forever

First published in “Love Story Volume 1”
by Elephant House Press, 2019

did we really talk unconditionally
in those golden days
of change
liberation
opportunity
or was it more casually
through the music of
his undying and
her eternal
our love taking wings
flying us into tomorrow
unfalteringly
undiminished
because i can’t recollect
the markers, the high tides
or the crosswinds
but
i tirelessly recall
the stolen glances
that would have written those conversations

First published in “Flashes of Brilliance”
edited by Darren White, October 2019;
https://www.flashesofbrilliance.org/vespers-geoffrey-aitken/

in this outer suburb,
times are ungenerous -
a struggling main street
business community
competing for custom,
but we get to our local
weekly
where publican Dave
talks up regulars
who make trade viable

in conversation
i learn of those
obsequious
inner suburbanites
wanting to impress friends
with bulk bookings
unsuited to this establishment

Dave can’t cater
for larger groups
and those phone calls, he says,
never end well

when i leave that welcoming,
warm open fire, mid-afternoon,
two neo-moderns enter
and request,
a lemonade & raspberry
and a pineapple juice

tough times, surely

First published in “Platinum Poems Anthology”,
20th Anniversary of ‘Frances’, 2019.

inspired by
electro-tech apprentices
it’s understood
and accepted
there will be
connectivity -
down to the ground:

earthy stuff!

First published by Emerald Publishers (#2 of ‘3 workplace poems’)
in “Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal”,
March 2020