Beautiful People

'There's an island I know
They get a little rain
Then it snows
But the feeling seems to flow
It's a place that I call home
We get the music, get the market on the weekend
People don't seem to play pretend
Snow capped mountain looking over my shoulder
The summer seems to get much shorter and colder.


But there's beautiful people
And familiar faces
That's where I want to be
When the cold world races
The people I link with
The friends that I drink with
When the sky is falling down
It's my family I want to be with
The beautiful people.

There's a pub on the corner
You can drink in the street
Philosophy on the lawn
You can wear bare feet
If you stay out late
There's no pollution in the sky
So you can see the stars

Yeah we got problems
A few greedy men
Making decisions with
A cheque book and pen
The paper says
Nobody's cutting the trees
Seems funny to me
When the paper's made
Out of trees.

But there's beautiful people...


-song by Adam Cousens, Beautiful People. (C) 2009

I feel fine

Heat wave
Tsunami wave
Shock wave
Tidal wave
Pressure wave
Goodbye wave
Blowdry wave
Global wave
Alpha wave
Sine wave
New wave

Standing on a hill
Waving at the shore
Wondering when
The final wave
Will come
To return
To life
Once more

Making plans
To see a band
Eating out
Nothing fancy
Just a few
More chances at
A minute spent
With you
Pimelea nivea

The undoing

Bowl of red roses
One thorn
Field of clover
One bee
Picnic in grove
One ant
Sleeping dogs lie
One flea

Magnanimous reply
One word
Deep belly sigh
One spurn
Long tanned thigh
One burn

One yearns to turn
A blind eye
To all the ones
That lead to our
Undoing
If we erase
One line
How delightful
It would be

Paring down
All nature's will
To living without
One penetrating
Sting
Would deprive us
Of so many
Beautiful things

Dance till we drop

One by one 
Memories come
As first drops lightly
Before a lavishing

At once dissipating
On parched broken land
Then blanket covering
Moving sun's dwelling
Into hiding

Between them both
Daylight quench thirst
One without the other
No dancing dresses
Come out

Parched tongues dip
Into warm clear springs
Going underground
To yield every colour
Known to the eye

Above and below
Bed of growth
Light touch sows
Till sun retires
Dewdrop gathers
For next bow
In the sky
Dianella tasmanica Tasmanian flax lily. Rosny, lutruwita / Tasmania.

Love crush

Think you're flying free
But really, attached
Grounded
Just learning
To spread wings

Until when
One touch
Caving in
Any thought
Of leaving
Ends

Instead sowing seeds
Raising up anew
In case we meet
Again
Caleana Major – large flying duck orchid. Kingston lutruwita / Tasmania.

Singing the sundown

Everything is going
The same way as the sun
Round and round
Counting its days
Swinging up and down
Lamenting the place
It puts us on the
Dark frozen days
Wishing to be near
To warm us
Knowing it prevents
The wonderland
From freezing over
At your time of year
If all I had were lips
I would speak a warm fire
Into existence
Warm frosted toes
Hold them in the glow
Resurrect solar flares
For the night
Singing up the sunrise
Whistling pot of coffee
Sing song greeting
To all little creatures
Singing lips till supper
Until yours meet me

Our mirror world

In stone quiet hours
Retreat to cosy corners
As real as anything
That happened in
The liquid light
Smallest words powerful
Take over all evidence
To the contrary
Beggars become pleasers
Rigid made into teasers
Doors as hard as
Bruised knuckles
Swing open
With a breath
Sand between toes
Curling fingers glow
A wet coat smell
Pervades with a kiss
The salty taste
Lingers longer
Than the night
As we curl
Like a shell
And miss
Image credit: Suzy Manigian