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Quiet words for airports

I
The nagging prey
The nagging prey
of the rain window at dawn
is a storm grey worming in
from the north;

expedience in such dreariness
should produce words
mellifluous describing precipitation,

but here, in Sydney, a blackout in Blacktown
leaves us voiceless
and unheard in
light shattered hotel rooms.

II
Limbo-land, where
quiet airports have their own
special horror-
the stasis of one hung moment,
waiting for the call.

Tiles, tarnished no longer white
walked smooth,
assault the senses:

radios whisper
sniffer dogs swerve in malevolence,
tannoys bark of unattended cars
then silence falls again.

Doors click
the sick
and luminously well,
linger here

in common prayer at arrival boards
the old- shuffle with wrinkle bags
from seat to seat;

limbo-land waits.
When
is your
flight?

III
JQ720 Canceled-

Hunger for air out of the dryness
dyed air,young girls, drowsy in
the frissant of excitement, and adventure
outside of your life.
The solitude of routine.
Somewhere between all this
sqwark and hum

between

the stark shocks of pronouncement
and security

There is a silence beyond all this,
a rhetorical running creek,
deep beneath the concrete.

Outside, on the runway
rain drums the smooth steel,
of seething hot planes-
my heat among this
beats hard
in the quiet.

Style / type: 
Free verse
Review Request (Intensity): 
I appreciate moderate constructive criticism
Last few words: 
I hate flying - eight and a half hours waiting in Hobart. I listen to Brian Eno, "music for airports" - and pen this along my journey. Musicality may be missing - but i think Eno doesn't necessarily go for concordant musicality.
Editing stage: 

Comments

in the quiet..

Eno...oh man...an ex...my old real estate
broker brilliant girlfriend..
she now sells top new incoming computer
equipment to the hospital of muskoka
somehow she gets these contracts
and shifts...brilliant but suffers some
ego and addiction
why we met long ago

eno on the overhead system would
not go un noticed
i remember this odd bar on eglington
avenue near Rosemount?
it was on the jukebox...the intellectuals
of intel hung out there
Big Blue...Eno I remember from a Bryan
Ferry video...seventy something
whistle test footage from UK

hate flying so only the rarest was I in
an airport....
present girlfriend had a freak out
crying asking people where her flight
was...they were kind but the steppie
the brilliant sharpshooter of the mind
and character with ego to match knew
where they had to get too...they ran
and caught their connection...from spain
home to canada....then flight in to North
Bay on small charter..
ha...our tiny little modern airport is so cool
its like another world...picked up the bags
that got stolen found....like something out
of the movie Fargo....spring..misted moon
eccentric passengers.....
had to carry about seventy pounds on the
handlebars of the bike down off the escarpment
after an exhausting day of work..
was interesting.....the girls making their way up
the long grade through the wide rock cut to
hit up the rich bad boy wealthies who live on
the escarpment with parents in the huge modern
mansions....reminded me of miners...looking
for the hearts of gold
the downed tinkerbells from the apartments
and housing blocks gifted with the proper size
looks and genes and drive....

Niel Young wrote of his travel by plane
'walkie talkies talking....windshield wipers wiping' etc
Gordon Lightfoot..
'you cant jump a jet plane...like you can a freight train
well there she goes my friend..in the early morning rain'
ribbon of darkness over me...my true love walked out the
door...etc..great lyrics...

the same eye for detailing....the same slow careful drip
by drip of color to your canvasse of the mind creates
the montage of visuals...

thanks Chris!
adventure on poet!

W

I LOVE these replies as much as the creation process itself man.
I submit a bit of weird colour impression,in verse and I get a mini "book movie" in response - like a letter from Dean Moriarty.

I am in the open sea, as the hours go slowly drifting by. Then there is a buoy who stealthy steers me,

I believe the reference you make to the song you heard was the wonderful "Deep Blue Day" - one of Eno's finest:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZnRe6e20xE

That's the original my friend, but - if you like your Scottish, heroin cult film influence, then you can't go past this clip from "Trainspotting" the movie - from the fantastic novel by Irvine Welsh:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRjskbf87hw

If you have a couple of hours to spare - i would strongly- STRONGLY -endorse this classic, now twenty years old, see in full here:

http://putlocker-m.com/watch-trainspotting-1996-online-free-putlocker.html

I watched it in Edinburgh at the height of the rave scene...words cannot describe.

Calton Hill
Sleeping in graveyards,
We slept in the tomb of David Hume (look him up)
King of the empiricists
Was a tramp who
Exhumed the dead philosopher
and explained how the continental rationalists
Had it all wrong
Yet here in evidence, in eye
Was Hume, the great,
Burning in a vagrants fire.

Take care,
C

Chris Hall - Tasmania

Grossbooted draymen rolled barrels dullthudding out of Prince's stores and bumped them up on the brewery float. On the brewery float bumped dullthudding barrels rolled by grossbooted draymen out of Prince's stores.

author comment

Thanks for your poem. I had to look up Blacktown, you might put in a footnote where it is..
and I think you meant heart not heat in the bottom passage. That said, my own take is that the poem is the second section (II) , it works alone as the whole poem.

I believe it is universally agreed that last century flying was simple. Planes flew when it was raining, Airports were the gateway to adventure; by the 50's common folk were able to fly, and just being in an airport was a thrill, especially if you were going "abroad", for international travel. Today I hate flying, everything sucks; The silliness of taking off our shoes and watching people in their 80's being strip searched, the seats have diminished while the weight of the passengers have increased. As opposed to lunch you get a stale pretzel. I still fly often enough, and I arrive on time now about 10% of the time. If I arrive on the same day I am supposed to I'm generally happy. O brave new world.

Eumolpus
I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing
than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance
ee cummings

Thanks, deep and true for your comments - it was heat - not heart - literally an impression of temperature..
Flying is a stale occupation when the waits are long, and the baggage heavy.

I was 14 in 1983 - and thought that we would all be diving onto inter-continental shuttle trains, circumnavigating the globe. What comic books promise, and time delivers eh?

Thank you for pointing out that it would work as one piece - this was my initial intention, I had three separate impressions lined u in notebooks, all scribbled down in notebooks at the same insufferable airport, so thus divided up into three parts.

Thanks for checking out.

cheers, c

Chris Hall - Tasmania

Grossbooted draymen rolled barrels dullthudding out of Prince's stores and bumped them up on the brewery float. On the brewery float bumped dullthudding barrels rolled by grossbooted draymen out of Prince's stores.

author comment

Cheers as well. I was in Tasmania some time ago, had a magical time. However there once I was driving in one of the reserves, not driving fast, when a kangaroo jumped from nowhere into my windshield. I had never killed anything before other than a few insects on my skin. So sad, I had come several thousand miles to be an executioner!
Best memories was a canoe ride in the lakes in the mountains, and wine glass beach. What a great place to live!

Eumolpus
I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing
than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance
ee cummings

Don't worry, we've all done it, even driving carefully.. yes Tassie is truly beautiful, and very unpopulated, which is why I love it, solitude when you need it, Hobart when you need a bit of culture.
I moved here to escape the heat an madness of QLD. Glad you enjoyed the lakes, sounds like you were up at Cradle mountain, or the upper lakes/lake Pedder or something.

Take care,

Chris.

PS - at least you didn't hit a wombat, or a Tasmanian Devil, that is really sad - then the eagles (beautiful big wedge tails) come for the roadkill, and end up getting cleaned by idiot drivers flooring it on bad roads..

Chris Hall - Tasmania

Grossbooted draymen rolled barrels dullthudding out of Prince's stores and bumped them up on the brewery float. On the brewery float bumped dullthudding barrels rolled by grossbooted draymen out of Prince's stores.

author comment

finally caught that movie or rented it
a beautiful old room
the girls had the main big bedroom
we had painted for princess
when she finally arrived
her grandmother couldnt handle her
and I am no lion nor wolf tamer but
did my best
we both and all adapted
Bunni had the living room
where she is most comfortable
an early riser...news..weather
her games on laptop
a television and many odds and
ends...three years lived in the holding
area...junk..boxes...which I loved
like a garage or attic..tidy clean
warm...window...curtians....
a television with disc player
once all the never ending chores
were over with...and books!

the movie was excellent!
grew up with about six buddies
various male and female grouping
we still all hang out now and then
a home in a sedate lake tourist
hood....much esoteric there!

been quiet of late...toiling with the
little details of the large apartment
Bunni has in a structure richly detailed
put together very well...she has rich
taste in design...photos knick knacks
upgraded furniture....thinking of moving
back but then I must stay sober...which
I can do...had ten years once
gotta roll out and catch a meeting at
eight downtown....its seven now
no brakes on the bike...nothing like
adventure....

I will check out the soundtrack
my present computer tower is ancient
but upgraded....just the GPU is maxed out
the secondary older tower capacitor in the
transformer box blew out.....a friend has
stacks of these....just busy with his life
one day...and I have a funkier three years
(2009) top line fast comp in holding...hes
got windows on it again and is tweaking it
.again...in the waiting process..no rush
this thing clunks along...u tube audio songs
only skip and bump but that was the norm
we all then had records with cracks and skips
I remember when videos were brand new..

woke up at four......pot of coffee into me
pain meds kicking in become a night owl
again...some boiled eggs for dinner
running low on smokes..thirty dollar cheque
tomorrow...run there..pick it up..run through
the city to the bank where the manager a tall
older blonde has a fancy on the rover
and then off to the reserve about the lake
by four miles to the little store for cigarettes
then back through the city to over here
a busy day

must be moving and getting underway

Thank U Chris! Mr Wolf!

Go to your local tip/e-waste dump, see ya guy there, take a screwdriver, the PSU is a piece of piss to replace...just a few plugs, watch where everything was plugged in (particularly in the old mainboard) - even pull out your old PSU - 4 screws normally, and some very minor unplumbing, take it down the recycle centre with you, so you know you've got one that matches (check the wattage on the label sticker) - as long as its the same, or even higher - she'll be right mayeet! DIY you can fix bikes, this will be like lego for you.
Or look at it this way - easier than setting up an old scaletrix set or TCR see this excellent tutorial - ahem - snigger:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT2mLi7ldew

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEYYI1ii0AU

Even iggy Pop has picked up on these guys, not surprising.

Haha - this is the accent I used to have, before I moved to AUS at 29...ahh, Sleaford, Nottingham, Mods, I grew up with guys like this - "Elvis has definitely left the fookin' building' - hah they are re-inventing punk in Nottingham, and this guy (drank in my local pub) is a local hero, and I think, what voice art (or poetry, or music, or lyrics - who cares?) - is great, and where it's at.

You take care my crazy northern hemisphere friend.

Chris.

Chris Hall - Tasmania

Grossbooted draymen rolled barrels dullthudding out of Prince's stores and bumped them up on the brewery float. On the brewery float bumped dullthudding barrels rolled by grossbooted draymen out of Prince's stores.

author comment

cold out...bike still holding up... pedal jobbie...falling apart..like my dress shoes..tan leather..desert shoes...wood heels..made in italy..rubber tan heel sole fell off..and a chunk..layer of wood..I got nails.peg knife...peeled off a layer from other side....found some nails..hammered er together..Viola! picking up some stuff at Wallyworld a native chap with his son with bike helmet...tough looking sport but good with his boy...smoking a cig at the Tower Gate entrance...he goes...'forgot my bike lock' wasnt throwing a fit like the upper class do something or chiding his kid...eg..'u made me come here and now i forgot my bike lock....damn' etc...anyway...I look em over...say...'I got a bike lock...my rides over there at the parking sign...i can lock em together while u go shopping' dude was so happy! i stayed outside and true to his word...he was in there and out again...man..sometimes U just gotta hack the societal norm instead of being a pisser...and on way in a nice looking young hipster with his young girl...say teens..twenty maybe...asked for a light..sure..dug out my pink lighter..they didnt bat an eye...'matches my ride' thumbed it towards the steppies pink bike...He goes...'like your bling' i said...'thank u' his girl had magnificent color
eyes...dude was spiffed up well in local youth but a good look....just another day in the life of the
road trail cap I say! ate some kraft dinner and tomato's..left over food bank grub...five days till
main cheque arrives morrow...thirty dollars from work..paycheque in my mail punch in card slot...
coffee and some cigarettes!! have to call head office on these blighters in a local business..I dont think its protocol for the behaviour of late which has gotten worse....couldnt get head office number from em....and they happily said managers live out of town....okay..thanks for the intel...called em back with the head office number....adress for em! but thats an issue like the bike etc im working on.....for relaxing while i tour Neoland here Im listening to soundtrack for the gamer game Fallout 4...fifties nuke era...great game....

the games have rich detailing...why i loved joseph conrad and marg atwood...poe and Lovecraft...they built atmospheres but enriched with superb intricacies to fathom with the
mind....word candy....the careful paced atmosphere is like this...Lord Jim...I greatly enjoyed
that book and others..

I got sick of watching videos like dial up....waiting for twitter to load up...so I just tore out
the transformer from the older tower...same company builds....bolt holes lined up..same
plug in adapters which I marked with numbers...pulled everything apart....fired it up waiting
for the sparks or flames or POP....i dont care if anything is cooked at this point..
after a few reboots and cord yanking...restarts and plugging in for dvd and rom...presto
the damned thing works!!

im sure with careful paced study and reading I can manage other things....but I admit
like the old three oh two into the mid line ford frame from 79.....some parts need tweaking
had to weld and built frame mounts...my brother would make a tri pod out of trees and hire
the local egg man...an ancient crotchety dude who loved motors.a regular wizard..
figured i never tried so whats there to lose? the exchange of disc drive brain didnt work
but the power modules do.....

enjoy your writing and comments very much...wombats and roos..banga goes the kanga
on the bonnet...kate bush....up here we have massive moose which just peel off car rooftops
with driver and passengers....big black bears...and deer...obstacle course mayhem..at night.
back to the tunes and vids and perusal here of the old Poetry..

thanks Chris...

an avid reader

oh and thank u for the link..good intel and insight!

My kids played that game - Fallout 4 - I could never get into games that much, but that one had a great soundtrack, with the crazy guy on the radio, nice touch. It made it a pleasure for parents to have that soundtrack hopping in the background, instead of the repetition of the commonplace - smart.
Another game 'Borderlands' I think, made in Aus, also has a great soundtrack - with British band 'The Heavy' worth checking out..

Cheers Esk.

Chris Hall - Tasmania

Grossbooted draymen rolled barrels dullthudding out of Prince's stores and bumped them up on the brewery float. On the brewery float bumped dullthudding barrels rolled by grossbooted draymen out of Prince's stores.

author comment

You got it going cool. By disk/brain I take it the hard drive might be cooked? Again, only 2 connections, and a re-install of Windows. That's a bit tougher.
Building frames...that's a bit above my pay grade..wish i'd learned welding, ironically my old man was a top class welder, used to work on docks in Liverpool, nuclear power plants, refineries in Germany, power stations in Dover, all over the shop - so didn't see too much of him growing up in Nottingham. When he came home, he used to love renovating old Austins, Jaguar Mark II, Daimler etc. He used to buy them as shells, and rebuild them from scratch, did trade training in the British Army as a mechanic, mandatory national service (was in the Suez crisis, dropped into Jordan as a young bloke) - real tough old bastard, but very gentle spirit - man he's been everywhere! Very modest about the whole thing though, never talks about it, and not fussed about showing off his paratroop regiment insignia tattoo to everyone.
Anyway, they taught him welding, and he got really good at it - paid him well, comparatively , through the 70s 80s 90s as we grew up. Still going strong.
He used to get me to hold the spanners, pass the 22 etc. and ' put ya thumb on that' - as he built up his creations in the shed until dark and after - with the help of a clamp bulb - would stay out there till it got cold, mum calling me in, 'it's a school night Chrrrristopherrrr..' in her Edinburgh accent.
He always told me, ' I don't want you working with your hands like me' or wrecking your lungs in steam lines in the power stations i guess (always suffered chronic bronchitis after years in there) - so didn't go out of his way to show me welding, in case I got a taste for it I suppose - irony is now, I could use being a better welder, my dodgy runs, and spot welds, will just suffice for fixing up a trailer or gate - that's about it. I tell him I 'prefer bolting words together in my spare time' and bolting together computer networks for the day gig.
I sometimes envy the period he would have been at his prime, smack in the middle of the 60s - he used to to 'Ronnie Scotts' jazz club and other places, see Miles Davis, Coleman, other greats, he went to the 'Cavern' in Liverpool, early sixties, with his friend, who (I kid you not) shook Lennon's hand! Years later, when I started frequenting the pubs in Newark on Trent, Dad's standing in the corner, with his old mate, who reaches out to me and syas 'shake the hand of the hand that shook John Lennon' Your old man was there..'

Now he's a distant voice on the phone, I'm on the other side of the world, making my own life, he sounds more frail, but still OK - hopefully, he'll be over again this year.

I just read Atwood's 'The handmaids tale' have 'Oryx and Crake' - I've been meaning to get into that, since you mentioned Atwood. Also have to mention Anthony Burgess - Clockwork Orange, lose count of the times I read that one, the ultra-violence, the idea of normalised choreographed violence that pervades our society now, the prescience of the guy - was a lot coming.
Dunno, something of the dystonian always appealed in my early reading, like Huxley, Brave New World etc. lead me on to some more similarly themed reading. The Doors of Perception - perfectly timed with my 90s shenanigans to coincide with my paranoia, then came Will Self, The eery fat controller in 'My idea of fun' - a strange little book he wrote called 'scale'also sent me into a tail spin -

Anyhow, I'm off to check out some of your recent stuff and reply back - gotta stay in touch hey?

Happy landings/ alighting from whatever vehicle you're flying along in.

Take care Esk,

Chris.

Chris Hall - Tasmania

Grossbooted draymen rolled barrels dullthudding out of Prince's stores and bumped them up on the brewery float. On the brewery float bumped dullthudding barrels rolled by grossbooted draymen out of Prince's stores.

author comment
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