Back on the Poems (The first for 2023)

Wednesday is about books. And writing. Today, a few new poems. It's been a while. I took a few months off. I thought I'd quit for good, even. But they keep trickling out. So here's the latest few...

From time to time here I share a few new poems. Or a few old poems. Since it doesn’t matter when they were written.

Writing poems has been a thing I’ve done most days over the last six or seven years, and I mean most days. And for many years before that too - in big bursts. But recently I stopped. I lost interest in the form, and lost my way with what I was trying to say, and connected more with writing short prose.

Then, over Christmas, I wrote the first poem in several months - it was this Typewriter one, memories unlocked about writing when I saw the typewriter I was gifting myself for Christmas. I shared that poem with you already - when I wrote about the typewriter.

Well, it seems I’m not quite finished with the form yet, and I’m definitely trying to work out what’s next for me with poetry, most of the poems short, and certainly aiming for pithy. They’re yet to quite arrive there in most cases.

But there’s glimmers that resemble hope. I think.

So here are the latest. Let me know what you think. Or don’t. But either way, here they are now in your inbox, or on your screen, sitting there in your app…

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Ditch

i was a lost ball in
high weeks.     i wasn’t

hard to find but it
took too long to

look.    better to call off
the search, start

a new game, on
some other day.

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We Were Somewhere Near Masterton

Yesterday, my son asked me
how much a bag of weed should
cost. And I laughed, as I did
my best guess. He could not

understand why I found it so funny.
I tried to explain that of all the potential
scenarios, I had just never imagined
a chat w/ my 11yo, about the street-price

of marijuana for the crime novel he is
plotting. They grow up so fast. And,
no matter how weird, we must make
memories while they last.


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17th Wedding Anniversary

she made nachos, and later
fell asleep on the couch after
too much ice cream.

I vacuumed the house after
midnight, loaded up a Werner
Herzog doco, and sat there

too tired to move, and just as
in love as I’d ever been. What
a privilege to watch her sleep

all around the world, though
never more stunning than
in the corner of the sofa,

the dog asleep on her head.
Best nachos ever. This lucky
man is super grateful.


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The Sean Young Loop

Hollywood said
Sean Young was
crazy, after
making Sean Young

crazy. Sean Young
said Hollywood is
crazy, after going
crazy in Hollywood.


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Credit Where Cash Is Due

i am better than
johnny cash, i search
deeper – i have
a nastier drive.
when i shot a man
in reno, it was just
to watch him survive


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Advice from ‘Angela’

the theme from Taxi was written as an
incidental piece for a bit-part character
named Angela. The next time you worry

that the work you are doing might not
amount to much, remember this story.
A show runner is always just around

the corner waiting to elevate your pitch,
or so we might hope. Sometimes your
best work gets recognised by others

before you could ever know yourself.
Write for the bit-parts just as you would
for the starring roles, the main attraction.

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