For Mum (1st September 1925 – 3rd October 2010)

Our lady of the Rosary

Our mother’s devotion
to another mother’s
devotion to a son
crucified for us all.

A garland of roses
a string of prayers
to Mary for her son
and for her own sons.

Joyful Mysteries
Sorrowful Mysteries
Glorious Mysteries

devotion

desperation
flagellation
conflagration

she douses the flames with meditation while
rubbing well worn beads between thumb and finger

Rosary beads
worry beads.

Poem published in Divan Poetry Journal

‘No Straight Lines in Nature’

My poem ‘No Straight Lines in Nature‘ was sucked into the space time vortex 😉 and re-emerged twice for breath.

Well it took nearly three years but the poem was accepted for publication in the Divan Poetry Journal in 2010 (sent in November 2009), has finally seen the light of day in Edition 8 of Divan Poetry Journal!

I had given up hope of hearing from the editors of Divan and had an edited version of the poem (and new title) published in Verity La – you may remember.

The Divan Poetry Journal Issue 8 has suffered numerous delays according to Editor, Dr Earl Livings at Boxhill Institute of TAFE (including State government cuts to the TAFE system and software issues).

Never mind.

It’s here now and you can pop over and read the first version of the poem here.

I originally wrote the poem for Paul Squires (who often waxed lyrical about the non-linear nature of time) and it seems appropriate that the poem has been on such a convoluted trip to publication (and note the poem was published in Divan on the 26th of July – so close to the anniversary of his death on the 28th of July).

Divan has published some pretty famous poets in previous editions (eg., Pam Brown, Ali Alizadeh,  Chris Wallace-Crabbe) so I am honoured to be included in the contributors list.  A thankyou to Editor Earl Livings (and no thanks to the State Government cuts in funding 😉 ).

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champagne jelly

champagne jelly

want to make a
raspberry and pink
champagne jelly
poem
because it sounds
so good,

all it takes is
costa gelatine,
best pink champers,
caster sugar
and raspberries (mmmm)

bubbles in jelly
dancing in slowmo
under a pink sea,
effervescing above a bed of
raspberry seagrass,
waiting for the mermaids
to forage, sweetly,

sounds good enough
to eat,

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Follow this link if you really want to make raspberry and pink champagne jelly 🙂

‘Why do we hate the crow?’ – recording from ABC Radio National

Photo donated by At a Glance Pty Ltd (Lee Curtis and Garrie Douglas)

As promised here is the audio of my poem ‘Why do we hate the crow?’ which was recorded for the ABC Radio National ‘Birdlands’ project.

I love the way they have done this one, even better than ‘skin deep’, especially the sound of the crows in the background.

Producer Gretchen Miller said

Why do we hate the crow by Gabrielle Bryden just had to be read in a good strong Aussie accent – Drayton Morley did the readings for us here!  Produced by Gretchen Miller with sound engineering by Russell Stapleton.

Click on the link to listen to the audio:

WHY DO WE HATE THE CROW? mp3

Here is the text of the poem:

Why do we hate the crow?

We hate the crow
heavy
every bit black bird
beady ugly eyes

stupid shuffling of wings
casual
hop out of the way of cars
that’s arrogance

eating carrion
we don’t like birds who eat dead things
or stuff out of bins
how disgusting

hate that loud, raucous call
grating our ears
like finger nails
on a chalkboard,
they take the short cut
across the river Styx
and with their message from Hades
slip into a subliminal
sniper vantage point

bloody smart-ass birds
too smart for their own good
you can’t kill them, you know
you’ll get in trouble with the law

if only it had a splash of red
somewhere on the feathers
like the stunning
red-tailed black cockatoo

yeah but, they don’t eat dead things

so it is about dead things.