Abracadabra

Derived from the Hebrew phrase: 'Abreq ad habra' meaning:

'Hurl your thunderbolt even unto death.'

Stephen Fry

Thank you Mister Fry for your documentary "The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive." Insightful, empowering, and honest. Highly Recommended.

Crimson Rosellas

Listen to these dear birds apart

Sharp shrieking Cries,

Series of bell-like notes

Listen to them apart

Sharp shrieking Cries

Series of bell-like notes

Look at these dear birds together

Dance and swoop

On nuts and nectar

Look at them together

Dance and swoop

On seeds and flowers

See them sleep

See them sleep

Two hearts beating

At different times

With eyes closed

In a thatched nest

Like Cupped Hands

Holding a precious rhythm.

I sat down at the bar, and then he spoke.

I found myself sitting next to a blind black man.

“What sort of animal are you?”
“Excuse me?”
“Well, seems you eat a lot of fruit and nuts so I’d say you’re some kind of bird. Me? I like to swim. I like to slide my belly along the bottom of the ocean, and then leap out of the water into the moonlight. I’m a seal. But you’d be a bird.”
“A Kookaburra perhaps?”
“Yeah. That’s right baby. A Kookaburra.”

Another Poem

Digging up all the research for pieces, I've come across an archive of poems and thoughts. Once, a Georgian friend asked me to define the word "how". I wrote him a poem as a response.

How.

In what way would I describe being stared at by someone whose head was turned the other way?

In what way could I describe a silence that is fuelled by sweet desires?
In what way should I describe this melody that melts like snow under a warm tongue?
My brain clicks.

“I have seen the back of my hand for the first time and gazed at it!”

Flowers still blossom under this same dark ceiling

And this is how I can smile as I weep and walk softly through the sands

My response to To the Earth by Frederic Rzewski...

After a 2 year break, I've started relearning some music... An old favourite, "To the Earth" for 4 terracotta pots and voice by Frederic Rzewski. I dug around my research for the piece and found a poem that I wrote as an introduction to this stunning piece. I called the poem "hello"

In this earth where man makes and makes and makes, and quite often makes a mess, we sometimes forget the earth has already made.

Perhaps we have forgotten that nature is violent and destructive enough without us having to make more.

While we are making war with ourselves, we forget that nature alone is violent, and a battle of elements.

While we are making objects of beauty for ourselves, we forget that nature alone is beautiful and something to admire.

Have we forgotten reality is violent, depressing, intriguing and beautiful enough to overwhelm?

If we are no longer touched by the beauty of a change in season, no longer touched by the unique landscape that presents itself to us silently every day, and if we no longer rejoice in the ‘gentleness and cruelty of nature’, then perhaps we need reminding.

Good Vibes

My vibraphone has arrived in Sydney from the U.S.A. My latest purchase, a Musser M46 will be in my hometown of Adelaide very soon. Looking forward to arranging some music for this instrument, and preparing for a gig in November at the Wheatsheaf Hotel in Thebarton.