Published Poems

Published Poems

in the main
sustainable conversational exchanges
seem overlooked
in our schools:
students arrive with their ticket
and the jurisdiction
approves and
authorizes mimicry
for the next life stage
perpetuating
furtive gossip in doctor’s waiting rooms,
mixed hoo-ha at sporting events,
misogyny in the front bar and,
gobbledygook in mental institutions

no,
in our classrooms
we deal with sentences

First published by Green Tree Publishing in ‘oxygen’ edited by Cheryl Howard April 2021
he sits
fishing
in dark night
jetty cold
wearing singular
discomfort
as a storm front
nor’ wester and
a distant dawn
beckons
while he feels
the rhythmic rise and fall
of
end-of-line weight

First published by Ginninderra Press in ‘The Crow’,
edited by Joan Fenney June 2021
he makes it difficult
no lesson too extreme -
hard fought success
too often unacknowledged,
exerts pressure
that man-handle
confidence and self-esteem
while re-defining manliness
as a matter of urgency

his shadowy presence
is embarrassingly unpredictable

he is,
he is the father of men

First published by Friendly Street in ‘New Poets 19’ Anthology
edited by Edie Eicas, 2018
it is dark
life’s irony
a contemptible tattoo
wry
and scalding
brief
but inflexible
turning our pages
expediently
gauchely
to diminish
&
disproportionately
disadvantage
as
it sings
its contagion

for a laugh

First published in tamba,Issue 68, June 2021 by Goulburn Valley Writers,
Pat Patt editor
www.gvwritersgroup.com
what if
as a small child
your compromised behaviour
was not only reinforced
but encouraged?

what if
the school system,
in attempting to modify
those attitudes,
was attacked and ridiculed
by those you loved?

what if then, at age,
the ruling classes
ostracised you
because of your inability
to curb those ways?

what if
crime and allied misconduct
saw you enter juvenile justice
where rehabilitation demands
overturned all you knew
leaving your circumstances in question and,
your mental health lacerated –

what if
dominant culture demands
had so impacted your traditional belief system
that frustration psychology
drove all that you knew?

how would you deal with this?

First published by Friendly Street in ‘New Poets 19’ Anthology
edited by Edie Eicas, 2018
in my parents’ world
you remain quiet
not silenced
because freedom is
enshrined
and you don’t display
your misery
unless it is grief based
due personal loss and
you are mindful
but wary of those
beneath you
and most humbly respectful
of the high professions
because they deliver
authorized proximity

First included in “New Poets 19” Anthology by Friendly Street Poets
edited by Edie Eicas 2018 in “Soundings” a collection