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vandiemenspeak
vandiemenspeak
Feb 04, 2018 ⭐ View statistics (Premium feature)

Life .. still .. game.

(After Gould again)

How odd or even
obvious that we seek
the serene artifice
of a library, easing
our dripping sweat
with its slowed, cooled time

Here we first met,
face to face, I laughed
as I saw you had comically
draped a lithe trout
clumsily over a jar
while a rabbit, hare or
something similar

Fixed me with its
dead live gaze
from that framed place
so far..
Was that you?
in the delicate disproportionate head,
locked in the corpus, looking out
at these generations ahead,

Or did I see the eyes of the living,
In the contorted forms of the dead..?

About This Poem

Last Few Words: Reference: Another observation on one of my favourite convict artists again, poor old Billy Gould, see: https://www.linc.tas.gov.au/allport/Pages/goulds-fish.aspx This place (The Allport museum) is like a little cool haven in the midst of Hobart's stinging heat, on my lunchtime wanderings, I'll often be found in there. He actually did many, many variations of this theme, as you can see here, none of which are actually the on the wall in the Allport museum, where his trout is, to my mind:"comically draped" - see: https://www.google.com.au/search?q=William+Buelow+Gould+Still+life+game&dcr=0&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj8n_XR443ZAhXBTbwKHeVADXMQ_AUICigB&biw=1536&bih=746 Apologies for the massive URL. Chris.

Style/Type: Free verse

Review Request Intensity: I want the raw truth, feel free to knock me on my back

Editing Stage: Editing - draft

About the Author

Region, Country: Tasmania, AUS

Favorite Poets: Glen Richards, Thomas Hardy, Phillip Larkin, Robert Frost, William Carlos Williams, Carol Ann Duffy , Ani DiFranco, Seamus Heaney, Emily Dickinson, T. S. Elliot

More from this author

Comments

vandiemenspeak

vandiemenspeak

7 years 2 months ago

Yes, he's a bit of an enigma

And, yes, I would bloody love a Tardis, landing on Sarah Island and rescuing him from that awful place. Loved the reading, great pace and tone. Thanks for that!

Cheers Jess.

Chris.