Selections
From the published books
From Triptych
Rondeau
1
Ukrainian saltfields soapstone dull
With reeds and mournful birds. A wall.
A girl looks out into a lane.
The circus riding into town
Is glittering diamonds. Raptly pale,
She strokes a pony’s braided tail
And hears the clothes-line raven call:
Look back, look back, and surely turn
To Ukrainian salt;
From Three Painters
Much Much More
While we are straining to fit everything in, he
Seems to fit in much much more than we ever could
In our line by line cassation of verses. For instance
This seascape with a beach flag – not only
Does he fit in some pretty majestic
And peculiar clouds – and that’s just the first cab
Off the rank – he has some cliffs and palms too
Just poking their heads up over the hill, their tusks
Looking like the Sydney Opera House or, perhaps,
The Sydney Opera House as fancifully represented
By an overshoulder view of a fanned hand of cards
From the story by Guiseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
From Plagiarisms
The senator’s apartment was surprisingly well kept;
Heaped books extended from the entrance hall
Through several rooms, and reached at last the senator himself
From Three Obituaries and an Afternoon Tea
1 On first seeing Christo Javacheff
And falling in love as rapidly
As the breeze would later stir Little Bay
She changes the locks on her apartment
And addresses her husband thus,
“Your key no longer fits my lock.”
From A William Maidment Garland
– They order, said I. Shall we order? Prefatory Introduction
The waitress, Alice, with chocolate mousse or Introductory Preface
And a menu of dishes in other languages
Bent low over us as we were reading
A collation drawn from sundry sources.
Alice said, – What is the use of a book
Without pictures or conversations?
A Synopsis
From A William Maidment Garland
1
“ ‘Palestine soup!’ said the Reverend Doctor Opimian, dining with his friend Squire Gryll; ‘a curiously complicated misnomer.’ ” This opening sentence introduces a pleasing disintrication by Doctor Opimian involving an explanation of the confusion of two artichoke species, and slippages in translation.
From Occam’s Aftershave
To the Faithful Reader
I am seated comfortably just where the ocean
And the river collide in a high and wide
Commotion and where a large contingent
Of bedraggled coathanger cormorants has gathered
Looking and sounding a bit like The Rolling Stones
Belting out Beggars’ Banquet. If you believe this
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