Last Fastness

By Frank William Talen

Terse and concise or rambling and hypnotic, poetry finds the music in language.

Building pictures from sound, layering obvious over oblique on obscure, it secretes multiple levels of meaning for the seeking.
If a picture is worth a thousand words the goal of a single word is to create a whirl of images.

Reducing, condensing, saying more with less: making music in the flow of the words.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Jul 10, 2014
• ISBN: 9781499008784

Frank William Talen

FRANK WILLIAM TALEN has been creating poetry since his teengage years and has appeared in numerous anthologies. His previous collection is Th e Draftsman’s Dream (Access Press, 1997). In last fastness he shares his quirky observations of the natural world and society. His keen ear for language is at its most powerful in his depiction of the interplay between internal and external landscapes. Frank lives in a Perth coastal suburb with his adopted cat Boonie.

Book preview

Copyright © 2014 by Frank William Talen.

Library of Congress Control Number:        2014910471

ISBN:          Hardcover          978-1-4990-0884-5

                   Softcover            978-1-4990-0881-4

                   eBook                  978-1-4990-0878-4

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 07/08/2014

Xlibris LLC

1-800-455-039

www.Xlibris.com.au

633582

Contents

From a Skyscraper

Their New House

City Life

Nightwriters

The Pandora Box

Immigrants & Refugees

Helen Keller once asked

Twelve Dragons

Another Swanbourne Afternoon

Pet Hates

Harry the Horse!

Fear.Death

Mating Game

Visitation

Nightmare

Mischief

Peewee

Desert

The Jewel She Wears

Jennifer

Spacemen

Silly Old Bugger

Mirage

Sister Suicide

Knowledge of Timetables

Tuesday & Meatybites

TASMANIA SUITE

1. The Kite

2. The Firefighter’s Birthday

3. Roadkill for Life

4. Camry Capers

5. Drought

6. TST

7. Dial Range

8. VDL Lament

9. Christmas Beetles

10. Boobyalla

11. Final Day

Heaven Scent

Cuba Libre

Social Sea

Pigs in Space

Bring Out Your Dead

Running the Gauntlet

Ambush!

Marbled Scorpion

Beautiful Vermin

The Little Red Dress

Gone Fishing

He Might Be a Champion

War They Say

Halcyon Days

Hot & Heavy

Fire Out at the Station

Before Each Other We Were Hungry

Colours

Last Days of the Tiger Wolf

Land Between the Oceans

Bridges

Harold the Guard

Female Impersonators

The Truth, Vaguely

Tiger Moth

Splicing the Helix

In the Forest

O Stealth where is thy Sting?

Quid pro Quo

Surrounded

De Geest Overwint

At the Moment of Realisation

Electric Trousers

Diamond Coast

Portrait of the Artist

Give it Welly!

The Fan

Water Truths

Kosovo Aspect, June 1999

Moral Dilemma (7 y.o.)

Darling Scarp

Treasures

On Some Night

Senlac Hill

Timor Timur/Timor Leste

Atmosphere

Spring Snapshot

STIRLING RANGE SUITE

1. Nearer the Stars

2. Night Moves (The Sleep of Strangers)

3. The Mist Spirits Dance

4. Lady in Black

5. Voices of the Frogs

6. Land Inverted

How We Won the Cup

Conceiving Homunculus

World View

Flying

The Reluctant Navigator

Hot to Trot

Wave Rave

The Triumph Yet

Tropic of Capricorn

Charnak Country

South Terrace Autumn

Scrutable

No Regrets

River of the Gods

Ropework

Say Their Names

Wormfest

Without a Dad

Backtrack

Dancing, with Motorbike

Salt of the Earth

Ocean Kiss

The Belfry

A White Cross by the Highway

Transitions

Anzac Day 2001

Mounting on the Diagonal

Nirvana Comes When You Least Expect

Herdsman Lake Sleepover

Welcome of the Gulls

On Reabold Hill

Payloads

Water Ballet

Starry Cross Dreaming

Haiku 20

for Ned

MANIFESTO

Terse and concise or rambling and hypnotic, poetry finds the music in language.

Building pictures from sound, layering obvious over oblique on obscure, it secretes multiple levels of meaning for the seeking.

If a picture is worth a thousand words the goal of a single word is to create a whirl of images.

Reducing, condensing, saying more with less: making music in the flow of the words.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Harry the Horse! previously published in Galloping On VIII: the winners and selected poems from The Grand National Poetry Stakes 1997, ed. H. Weller & J. Harper-Nelson. Access Press, Perth, 1997.

TASMANIA SUITE previously published in Thirty Years & Other Stories. Anti-Ripoff Enterprises, Swanbourne, WA, 1998.

De Geest Overwint previously published in Dutch Community News, Vol 3 No 1, Official Newsletter of the Associated Netherlands Societies of Western Australia, June/July 1999.

Darling Scarp previously broadcast on CTV31, 25/9/1999.

How We Won the Cup previously published in highlights Issue No 7. Hamersley Iron Pty Ltd, January 2000.

Scrutable previously published in Voices of 2000, Poems from the Arrow 2000 Poetry Awards. Arrow Publishing, Lowood, Qld, 2000.

Salt of the Earth previously broadcast on 100.1FM, 20/3/2001.

Without a Dad previously published in 2001 A Poets’ Journey, Selected Poems from the Arrow 2001 Poetry Awards. Arrow Publishing, Lowood, Qld, 2001.

Welcome of the Gulls previously exhibited as graphic/sculpture/soundscape Welkom van de Meeuwen in Transpositions: being Dutch in Australia. WA Museum, ECU et al, 2002.

Parts of Immigrants & Refugees previously published in The Journal, official newsletter of the VOC Historical Society Incorporated, Perth, WA: 1. Elements, Vol 14 Issue 4, November 2013; 5. Departures, Vol 15 Issue 1, January 2014; 6. Arrivals, Vol 14 Issue 6, December 2013.

My thanks to Tim Thorne for his advice, to Ann Barry for her encouragement, and to my family for their support.

From a Skyscraper

Far across a spring-grey Perth

a favoured suburb floats in sunlight,

facades flashed with silver arcing

to a fluff of cotton

amongst the grim lint clouds.

Their New House

Another vacant block not there

yesterday…

she knows the bus-route houses but can’t recall

the one that’s gone.

He cares about the homeless

and cripples who can’t walk

but you wouldn’t catch him dead in

last year’s car.

No starving child

could reasonably disagree that

their old house has passed its use-by date.

Shit, it’s only got one loo!

But location location it’s hot.

They’ll demolish and rebuild.

Their architect’s so cool:

black granite & gold taps all round.

City Life

Through the rush hour madness

a single ringneck’s¹ piercing

CHEERUP!!

CHEERUP!!

CHEERUP!!

triumphal over traffic

drifts up from the street

whilst on level with my eyrie a peregrine

rides updrafts between the towers.

An ant, intrepid, somehow

eludes security to rampage in my