Postcard Poetry - by Jo Wilson-Ridley

It's September and the annual "50 Books You Can't Put Down" booklet is out.  I have these booklets going back to 2004.  They're always fun to revisit, particularly if you're lookng for inspiration for a good or different read.

This year's booklet promotes a number of related events, including "Postcard Poetry".  How fantastic to see poetry included!  And the idea of postcard poetry, combines two of my favourite passions/pastimes - writing and travel.  I can't think of a better way to travel then to write as you go.

I tried recently, on an outback holiday to write at least a poem a day, featuring immediate impressions and inspirations of the new towns, habitats and drives I was experiencing.  The work was raw and randomn but I felt it provided a good platform to later revisit as a body of work.

One raw example comes from a morning spent in Hillston....

Fog froths from our breath
Wooden dinosaurs and
a toothy green crocodile
guard the muddy waters of
the meandering Lachlan

It's a slow pendulumn swing
of a wooden suspension bridge
But the weeds from recent
welcomed rains have overgrown
the beaten paths

The once thriving man-made lake
Now overcome by ferel growth
Weather beaten signs advertise the
adandoned aquatic sport

But it's the sign at the local butcher
that intrigued and split a smile -
Now smoking with redgum sawdust


I think next time I travel I will actually purchase postcards to write my poetry onto....what a great souvenir

...And with the Tranquility poem - I loved the reference to the night wearing a star-studded dress, and the stanza where the noises of nature doing what it usually does, at contrast to tranquility or could it be someone's idea of tranquility...


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