Like millions of others I recently saw the movie Inception which has a host of references to M C Escher, including staircases which go nowhere and a city (Paris I think) which folds into itself. This began a large circle of tangents (?!) in my mind. First to my own poem about M C Escher:

Home by Escher

having a domicile designed by

Escher was a social advantage

at first-

clamouring journos, paparazzi,

feature articles in

Modern Architecture.

The novelty’s worn off.

in the new millenium

Staircases are a tad passé –

you forget whether you’re

upstairs or downstairs

and walking upside-down’s

hardly practical with a

martini in hand.

The last straw when

floor tiles began transforming

to geese and flying south…

from micromacro 2006

© rob walker

When we were in Tsuwano, Japan in 2008 we stumbled on a small but quite comprehensive museum dedicated to the works of ukiyo-e (woodblock print artist) Katsushita Hokusai (1760 – 1849.) It was here that I learned that Hokusai studied the mathematical basis of his art as seen in his manga (artist’s sketchbook) of Escheresque geometric constructions of birds, fishes and studies of waves which culminated in his famous Great Wave off Kanagawa from the 36 Views of Fuji-san.

Hokusai visited Europe before the Meiji Restoration. Later his work was to influence Monet amongst others. So apparently even in the closed-to-the-outside-world of Shogunate Japan

it wasn’t possible to stem the flow of ideas.

The Great Wave Off Kanagawa,

Japan Ukiyo-e Museum, out of Matsumoto.

.

And Escher is still inspiring artists and planting ideas in humanity’s mind in the new millennium.

.

.

It seemed for a while there everyone was building marinas hoping to attract money-splashing boat-owners to small coastal communities while destroying the coast and small local communities. I wrote this one six years ago and it originally appeared in James Cook Uni’s combined March / October LiNQ in 2006 named Earthly Things.

flow-on effect

Pt Vincent, South Australia jan 2004

where once the sheoak grew on flats

a coast has been reclaimed

in this new age marina

translates as El Dorado

high rollers washing in

flotsam of the affluent

multiplier effect

yielded in its wake

quondongs

are  parasites

donating fruit.

Developers

say their fruit

will come in time.

.

My local council, the City of Onkaparinga, is a very progressive municipality which fosters the Arts. I know I’m biased, having won their inaugural Best Single Poet’s Collection in 2006, but I think they do a tremendous job on the local level. Poetry Unleashed 2010, now underway, involves poetry competitions for kids through to adults and a smorgasbord of accessible poetry events for the public. I’m involved with Candles, Wine and Classics at Leconfield Winery, McLaren Vale this Saturday night Sept 4 along with Jill Gower, Julian Zytnik, Ray Tyndale and Mary Bradley.

On Sunday Sept 5 I’ll be performing in the open Spoken Word competition at the Singing Gallery, McLaren Vale. There’s also a Poets & Pizza night
with Geoff Goodfellow, Alice Sladdin, Jill Wherry and David Cookson.
Oh, and a Great Debate that Poetry Sux. Onya onka!
About the logo: Not sure why I’m the soft underbelly. Better than being a horse’s arse I guess.

It’s National Science Week in Australia. A few months ago The Poets’ Union & The Australian Poetry Centre invited submissions for poems on the wide theme of ‘poetry and science.’ I was very pleased that my poem slater was chosen for the anthology Earthly Matters and my audio work Earth’s Greatest Hits will be played at the Science Made Marvellous launches in Melbourne, Sydney and possibly Adelaide. slater originally appeared in micromacro, along with a number of other poems on the science/ eco theme which has always interested me. It’s great to see an entire book of poems on such subjects as bacteria, pollen and stromatolites! The other poets are Martin Langford, Faith de Savigné, Carol Jenkins,  Saskia Hewitt, Mike Cooper, Meredi Ortega,  Meg Mooney,  Annamaria Weldon,  John Bennett,  Martin Langford,  t.w.gee, Benjamin Dodds, Michael Sharkey,  P S Cottier,  P S Cottier, Liana Christensen  and Emily Ballou.

I’m in London right now visiting my daughter Amy. I read here that John Lennon’s original draft of his A day in the life recently went at auction for £810 000 & that took me back to the first time I heard that masterpiece when I was an innocent boy of 15. Years later it inspired this (less lucrative) poem:

A day in the life

You imagine the solidity of
bricks      mortar      suburbs.
The transience of music & memory.
rehearsing the school musical
in the community Hall in Camden
At the cast party the camaraderie
of shared experience.
When you could have a wild time
without booze or drugs wearing the new pinstriped flairs
And the whole night playing
that one new record over and over
called Sergeant Peppers.
Every track a fresh view of
the world.
Thirty five years on taking a shortcut
you find yourself in the same street.
Everywhere beige courtyard homes.
The music and memories more
concrete with time

The Hall, gone.

(© rob walker 2006 from micromacro)