Long Linnet Poems

"The Silkworm’s Birthday"





Mulberry leaves flutter in the breeze
Kookaburra brave Joker bluffs a sky blue breast 
Drops one feather for a quill, a song hidden in a laugh, no bitter pill
magic never rests, like a crystal...

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"Possums on the Run - Part 3"


Collecting cut 
silver blue grass
carries garbage bags
green-ant bites, no siree,
this aint fun.
Stand guard, he’s the 
lawn mower Pope 
(she laughs)
on his ever vigilant run.

Look on him with sadness
Look on...

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“Arms Full of Linnet Wings”

In the garden 
that afternoon 
she planted seeds
in their ripe minds
their eyes looking
up to hers their 
irises dazzling 
in the late afternoon
sunshine wide open
as if waiting hungrily 
for more food 
she...

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Can't seem to get off to sleep tonight, thoughts buzzing around my old head,
It's dark and quiet, the cat has gone out and the street lights have gone out too,
The odd car passes by maybe...

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Can't seem to get off to sleep tonight, thoughts buzzing around my old head,
It's dark and quiet, the cat has gone out and the street lights have gone out too,
The odd car passes by maybe...

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I am a Savonarola chair
carved from discarded 
remnants of cedar and birch that
littered our backyard - 
waiting to be burned
or broken by a trespasser’s hands, 
or tended to by the warm touch
of a gardener’s natural...

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The crow, a prophet in the pines, 
Caws a lament, a mournful chime. 
Is it winter's grip he fears, 
Or a world grown cold, with unseen tears? 

The curlew pipes a mournful song, 
Across the...

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"The Letter"


"L" is for LOVE and the JOY that follows
"L" is for Learning flies high like a Swallow
"L" is for LIFE Lionheart all the rises and hollows
"G" is for DAUGHTER, hearts 2 as 1, flying...

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“Dreams Coercing Memory” 

You want cherries jubilee
with a little Krug champagne
but soft custard is just the same
when reality plays its game
by the spoonful
morphine comes 
to save the day

the light changes 
subtle refractions 
of dreams coercing
memory

long...

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House of mirrors, movement all around, with these long halls casting shadows on the 
floor. Burning lanterns flicker and whisper an unknown language. Doors leading down 
abandoned staircases, coated with dust ans inhabited by spiders....

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Sir – dearest Vicar,

You also came to sing?
Of course, after the third crow
Of our life-void cock
We had gathered like song-throated weavers
Highly assorted souls rallied
To sing his high-pitched liberty
– It was like Earth’s freedom! –
You also...

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Gravely digging the grave digger digs
holes for souls; waste pits plotted
earth soils clogging
Collections of bones for storage and mind
Disposal in disguise
Many a form, Goldfinch alike, are left 
in place of death; laying spent, shrivelled
dishevelled, colours...

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Darest Vicar,
Hearers were surprised to hear:
“I am glad to address this rally” –
Would our Cape-bred peacock consent
To perch on these foiled hill-top trees?

Darest V.C.,
It was this faked feast 
That held our souls surfeit
That held our...

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