My writing

My writing that is published on this site, including lots of creative commons poetry.

  • I wake in the dusty light      to the deepcity cockcrow      of traffic and stair-thumping      housemates My bag’s by the wall My boots are on the floor My clothes are rumpled all over me I’m lying under a coat      I found up the road      and two thin throws that I wouldn’t      call blankets There’s empties on Read more

  • The new thing

    That man and I      were standing on the street      with a group of fellow artists      watching a performance. I stood just in front of him. He put his hands on my shoulders,      slid them down my arms,      stroked my hands. I leaned back against him. He leaned against me. We didn’t say anything. He was Read more

  • Recently I saw a podiatrist. As she felt my feet she said, “Any plans for the weekend?” “I’m teaching poetry workshops,” I said. “Hanging out with friends, too, but mainly I’ll be working.” I didn’t explain that “hanging out with friends” meant going to Perth’s weekly poetry event Perth Poetry Club, which I instigated in… Read more

  • I dreamed a gun like Dirty Harry’s, a Magnum, phallic silvercoloured barrel I dreamed a gun and a lock A lock on a blank room where I had to hide the gun A lock on a blank room with an ancient drawer full of other people’s junk where I had to hide the gun We Read more

  • Ordinary love

    I have to admit, U2 are not what they were. They are slower, less able to stretch and risk. They have a routine. They come out wrapped in layers of production. But they will always be my band. The love is like the eye light of a time-marked woman still looking at the grizzled man Read more

  • discrete

    Mattie Furphy House June 2012 On the path below the verandah where I sit, discreet, discrete occasional clusters, twos, fives, pass. A man exercising an unpleasant dog. A woman striding fifteen feet behind him. She projects her clauses toward his shoulderblades: “As she said, y’can get away with buying cheap shoes, but then Whammo! it Read more