Monthly Archives: July 2011
My Wife Disdains the Quaint and Frugal — Stanza 75
Res Publica, Book One, Canto the Second 75. And there we were – a businesslike dawn appearing for work, a kind of P.A., ready to plan my wife’s busy day; and pester her husband to mow the lawn, get out … Continue reading
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More Words from My Wife — Stanza 74
Res Publica, Book One, Canto the Second 74. The way you brood on things, expect some reparation, some justice for being cheated. But trust is not a freeing force – oh no! You must reject what holds you down! Freedom … Continue reading
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My Wife, Still Talking — Stanza 73
Res Publica, Book One, Canto the Second 73. Including – ’ and here she paused for effect; and I must say, she had my attention. I might have suspected she held such pretensions as these, but still, she’d kept them … Continue reading
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My Wife’s Soliloquy Continued — Stanza 72
Res Publica, Book One, Canto the Second 72. Exactly! Our mass – our density – is less than yours. Some special trait we have that always shoots us straight up to the top. The sheer intensity of our ascent, the … Continue reading
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My Wife’s Soliloquy — Stanza 71
Res Publica, Book One, Canto the Second 71. For though her speech had seemed to me (who listened like an ignorant peasant standing in her Majesty’s presence) all fustian soliloquy, she seemed to perfectly appraise the very objections I would … Continue reading
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Lion Red and Hubbards Cereal — Stanza 70
Res Publica, Book One, Canto the Second 70. This made no sense to me, a guy who every weekday lay in bed all morning, and maybe, at most, gave Lion Red40 a disproportionate supply of what he earned – but … Continue reading
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Whatever it Takes to Win — Stanza 68 & 69
Res Publica, Book One, Canto the Second 68. I once inquired – ‘What do you do? Are you an Accountant? A Business Advisor?’ I almost never apostrophized her this way – with questions, I mean. I knew that in those … Continue reading
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The World is Small, New Zealand is Smaller — Stanza 67
Res Publica, Book One, Canto the Second 67. Or two. Or twenty. She’d talk of ‘clients’; and every day in the Business Herald I’d see those paramours appareled in bold bargello stripes and giant pie-graph pendants – harlequin kings in … Continue reading
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The Icy Fever of Married Life — Stanza 66
Res Publica, Book One, Canto the Second How our narrator returned home safely from his newly discovered island to find his wife preparing to leave on a business trip . . . 66. My GPS guided me swiftly home the … Continue reading
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My Wife vs. Pushkin’s — Stanza 65
Res Publica, Book One, Canto the Second 65. But let’s move on. For just because I’m not a real poet, it doesn’t mean I shun attention. It wasn’t Pushkin who caused the greatest buzz amongst his readers. It was his … Continue reading
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The Naked Writing Teacher — Stanza 64
Res Publica, Book One, Canto the Second 64. Now there’s a show! The Naked Writing Teacher. A youngish, spunky chap who loves to travel and listen to rap and O! There’s nothing more exciting to him than holding a pencil. … Continue reading
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Chermoula with Ketchup — Stanza 63
Res Publica, Book One, Canto the Second 63. But that’s just it! This poet’s untrained, which may be why, in trying to render that evening’s rapt and crystal splendor, I missed the mark. My art is feigned. I haven’t just … Continue reading
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First Impression — Stanza 62
Res Publica, Book One, Canto the Second 62. And often the dutiful wife may even loathe at first this charming friend – our hero who wins her in the end – but something makes it hard to leave him. That … Continue reading
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Every Tale Requires Some Tension — Stanzas 60 & 61
Res Publica, Book One Canto the Second: Long 175 58′.35E, Lat 36 16′.10S Our narrator explains his determination to tell a faithful story despite his lack of formal story-telling experience . . . 60. I’ve never taken a writing course, … Continue reading
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Poetry at the Gods Cafe — Sarah Day and Kevin Hart
With the first Canto of Res Publica now finished, we pause for refreshment. Another visit to Canberra. Another stop, my second, at the Gods Cafe, where last night, two exceptional poets, the Virginia University-based Kevin Hart, and the Hobart-homed Sarah … Continue reading
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