Sundays Whirligig 207

a lovely photograph of friends
fine boned women with brown skin
dazzling under the weight of sunlight
speaking different languages
enjoying the fresh sea air
nice memory
your presence is missed



  THIS WEEK'S WORDS come from "At the Beach" by Elizabeth Alexander: photograph, women, presence, skin, friends, language, air, bones, fine, weight, sunlight, brown

Carpe Diem # 1635

perfection
fragile beauty feeds
on flower pollen
flitting through the bushes
a touch of the divine

Mischa Maisky plays Bach Cello Suite No.1 in G (full)

Carpe Diem # 1633 - wedding

no furniture
rich in love with fish ferns
they have each other

Carpe Diem - # 1632 Desire

the apple of desire
forbidden fruit always tastes
the sweetest

Adieu Michel Legrand ( 1932 - 2019 )

our little french genius
with a song bird in his heart
who imprinted our youth
with his beautiful love songs
evoking memories of
black and white movies
nouvelle vague
coffee houses
gitanes
existentialism
revolution
endless romance
endless dreams
beaucoup de larmes
beaucoup d'amour

merci maestro

Carpe Diem # 1631

Sonnet 98: From you have I been absent in the spring

From you have I been absent in the spring,
When proud-pied April, dressed in all his trim,
Hath put a spirit of youth in everything,
That heavy Saturn laughed and leaped with him.
Yet nor the lays of birds, nor the sweet smell
Of different flowers in odour and in hue,
Could make me any summer’s story tell,
Or from their proud lap pluck them where they grew:
Nor did I wonder at the lily’s white,
Nor praise the deep vermilion in the rose;
They were but sweet, but figures of delight
Drawn after you, – you pattern of all those.
    Yet seem’d it winter still, and, you away,
    As with your shadow I with these did play.

© William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

without you in my life
fragrant flowers and roses
do not make my spring

Sundays Whirligig 205

This weeks words from "Interview" by Dorothy Parker
admire wicked shrink light complaints candle far word sanction erotic word paints






she admired her wicked neurotic shrink

in spite of all the complaints about him 

conducting patient sessions by candle light

playing the william tell overture full blast

his office - wall to wall erotic paintings

the board did not sanction this kind of behaviour

my word he was such a far out guy

Sunday Whirligig 200

       




well dare i say

how beautiful you look

singing and laughing
with your brother

eating at the kitchen table

you are much darker
than i imagined

Bougereau

This weeks words come from " I too" Langston Hughes

laugh sing table how well beautiful brother table say dark kitchen dare

Mozart - Horn Concerto No. 4 in Eb major - Rondo, Allegro

the stench of acrid smoke
wafts into my apartment
courtesy of
the chain smoker neighbour from hell
ho hum
time for french horn practice again

Letters and Owls

when the dear one died
she knew it would be the last birthday card
she would ever receive

her mother threw all her photographs out
to obliterate her existence

it is awful how families favour one
the other destined to live under the stairs
never measuring up or being good enough

everyone could use a brood of owls  now and then
to come to the rescue

or warm arms about them
 to keep them safe

everyone needs to be that special person for someone
at some stage during a life

it seems there are not
enough arms to go around
we are in the throes of
a global shortage of kindness

one can see it etched
in all the faces of the lonely
as they trudge home to empty rooms

Shrove Tuesday

choir boys
defend themselves with frying pans
cardinal strikes again

Cardinal To Blame

catholic choir boy
mistakes the' tool shed '
for a carpentry workshop

No Picnic For George

it has  been rumoured
(in oz this means irrefutable truth)
cardinal pell abducted the protestant school girls
from Picnic At Hanging Rock 

fragments of their black stockings were found
by two choir boys who were stealing the altar wine
in the sacristy of the cathedral
forensic testing dates the fragments back to 1900
george is evidently much older than he believes himself to be

Bunyip Trial For Cardinal Pell At The Kangaroo Court

TEA FOR ONE

August 15  2014

it has been 5 weeks
the aftermath still smouldering
sparks still flying

being dragged behind ben hur's chariot
in the mud to the jeers of the colosseum crowd
takes it out of you especially with the thumbs
turned down 




astounded at
australia's current chilling version of the dreyfus case
i am reminded that my own poetic punch up
in the above poem five years ago
was  a mere squabble in comparison
to a trial that has rocked a nation
with the legal system in danger of losing its credibility
and any semblance of justice
a big turn on and a day out for the crowd
not so much for the unwilling participant
poor bastard
serial killers must be breathing a sigh of relief
they get much better treatment

Prokoviev ...A Lesson In Fortitude

Sergei Prokofiev ( 1891 - 1953 ) was still a student at the St. Petersburg Conservatory when he took the stage on 7 August 1912 to premier his 1st Piano Concerto. Since it was his first appearance with an orchestra, and expecting a rather large audience, he was predictably nervous.The crowd loved Prokofiev’s incisive playing, critics, however, were not impressed.

The work was labelled “musical mud,” and “the work of a madman.” Another critic claimed Prokofiev “ripe for the straitjacket” while a third reviewer stated that Prokofiev lacked the capacity for “novelty in the inner depths of his nature” and wondered if the piece even deserved “to be called music.” Ironically, it was the severity and the sheer viciousness of the critical reaction that brought Prokofiev instant attention and notoriety.

 Throughout his conservatory days, Prokofiev was known as a rebel who liked to experiment with modernist and provocative music. Not entirely unexpectedly, a good few of his professors criticised him for his “decadence " The first piano concerto is dedicated to the “dreaded Tcherepnin,” with whom Prokofiev studied conducting. Tcherepnin’s harsh criticisms of his conducting abilities would haunt the composer for years.

Performing as the soloist, he won the Anton Rubinstein Prize for a performance of the work on 18 May 1914. Prokofiev had submitted his own concerto for the competition so that the jury “impressed by its technical novelty would be unable to judge whether he was playing it well or not.” It clearly worked, with the jury headed by Alexander Glazunov proclaiming Prokofiev the winner. Grudgingly Glazunov suggested, “This will only encourage his pernicious tendency.”


Shadorma

pernicious
more  vicious insults
decadent
madman work
talent threatens those who have
doubts about their own

courageous
belief in one's self
tenacious
keep going
musical rubbish they said
they can eat their words

Forgiveness Friday

the crowd bayed for blood
pilate was a little nervous
he sensed it was a stitch up
the crowd bayed for blood
public pressure won the day
the judge got it wrong
death sentence issued
the crowd bayed for blood
the victim forgave them all
didn't even forget them
it was two thousand years ago
and we still talk about it