The Scrub Turkey

June 23, 2009 at 6:51 pm | Posted in australian poetry, contemporary poetry, poetry, writing | 20 Comments
Tags: courtship poetry, poetry, writing

apparently obvious anyway
why hide he makes the mad
mistake of going on display

and scratching out a dance
rearranging undergrowth
and raising dust balloons

which once released and let to fly
will always wonder why,

20 Comments »

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Hello, I love the new look, it’s like peppermints and ice-caves and the truth about water. Refreshing.
I keep thinking Australia is dry country, Sack Posset. The whole middle of it is basically a desert. Maybe that’s why there is so much water in the poems?

Comment by Sack Posset— June 23, 2009 #
Yep, the new look is great! As is this poem. I love it when I get it straight away (hee).
Cool, I was talking to someone who kept tagging their poems, ‘bad poetry’, Simonne. I said they are not bad poems, just clean simple poems which don’t claim to be more than they are. I have been thinking about a simple way to describe the difference between good and bad poems and I am starting there. Does the poem claim to be more than it is?

Comment by Simonne— June 23, 2009 #
I agree, whats the point of hiding something so elementary and joyous, Ive never seen or heard of a scrub turkey, but now i dont need to very neat!!
Scrub turkeys are very cool, Ms Mist. They live right up in the city too, they only need a patch of scrub. So they are like a bit of wild ecology hanging on in the urban landscape. Like me.

Comment by Mental Mist— June 23, 2009 #
Will they get their answer though? Or will it be an eternal unanswered? One of the prettiest images I have ever seen from you in those last three lines… a gentle flux of colour. Damn you with your hatred of punctuation. I’m almost beginning to not notice.
Haha, soon you won’t notice at all. I will magic all the unnecessaries away, Narnie.

Comment by Narnie— June 24, 2009 #
Very cool and I like the new look.
Cocoyea! You rock! I was listening to Telenova Star again last weekend.

Comment by cocoyea— June 24, 2009 #
Got to love the scrub turkey – don’t understand people who are miffed by their behaviour (well I do understand but think there are more important things to angst about)- you cannot win against the bird. Great poem – love your stuff!
Thankyou, Gabrielle! You cannot win against the bird, it is true.

Comment by Gabrielle Bryden— June 24, 2009 #
Ooh this makes me feel delighted – you know in a monkey steals your hat but falls over kind of way. Nobody says delighted anymore. Which is sad. You so frequently delight me. It’s wondrous.

I so wish I could write bouncy up there’s a Buddha masquerading as Tigger in there words. It just ain’t in me.

Jazz and moonbeams is about the best I can offer.
Oh Jazz and moonbeams is more than a sufficiency, thankyou.

Comment by Paeonia Miko— June 24, 2009 #
Just because, that is why, just because we live in this world
Too true, Mariana.

Comment by marianasoffer— June 24, 2009 #
You wrote an actual book by gosh? dude.

Super cool.
I did indeed. It pays for my whiskey and internet. Hello,

Comment by blahblahblah— June 24, 2009 #
Love that new header. The whole look is refreshing. Your poem is perfect in all its scratching and dust balloons. Why hide all that enjoyment anyway? Hope all is well.
Thanks, Michelle. Everything is very well, hope everything is Hunky Dory by David Bowie over your way too.

Comment by Michelle Johnson— June 24, 2009 #
What a nifty poem! I love the image of the scrub turkey kicking up all the dust then wondering why so much of it was kicked up in the first place. He strikes me as an allegory for many people, lol!
Haha, a lot of people, thankyou Thomma Lyn.

Comment by Thomma Lyn— June 24, 2009 #
This is kind of a mad dance of a fun poem almost ee cummings ish and playful too. Ohhh and I oh so love the soft soft pillows of blue here to rest my head. If you change your theme, you will have to change my comment or else it won’t make sense.
Okey dokey. Thankyou. Have you won the new job yet, AP?

Comment by art predator— June 24, 2009 #
So simple and it perfectly captures the mad dance so many of us carry out. Keep ‘em coming Paul.
Mad dancing in wild circles kicking up lots of dust in my wake is my speciality, Graham.

Comment by gnunn— June 24, 2009 #
Oh I love the humble Scrub Turkey, such fascinating creatures as they go about their daily business. You conjure up the image of these interesting birds perfectly with your words…a masterful magician of language…
Wow, thankyou, Tracey.

Comment by Tracey— June 24, 2009 #
really like the image of dust balloons
Cool, thanks Jessie.

Comment by jessiecarty— June 24, 2009 #
Words arranged by you…just fantastic!

Lovely coincidence by the way! or a magical synchronization again:)
Sherifa! Magical synchronization it must be. I missed you.

Comment by hayat— June 25, 2009 #
the last stanza provokes me to think quite a bit.

agrees with Tracey, a masterful magician of language.
Thankyou, Benjamin.

Comment by benjaminchew110478— June 25, 2009 #
I like to see the scrub turkeys raising their dust balloons.
Your new look soothes. Clean and refreshing!
Thankyou, Selma. I am changing the header image to kind of suit what’s going on. If I start getting complaints, I’ll try to listen to them.

Comment by Selma— June 25, 2009 #
[...] pieces about birds and rivers, so I thought I would podcast a couple of poems, sunonheads exit and The Scrub Turkey. You can hear them at Pool under the link above or here at my podcast [...]

Pingback by Podcast for Pool « gingatao— April 28, 2010 #
for intelligent beings ya wonder why they taste so good at this holiday called thanksgiving on the other side of the sea… not that being tasty and intelligence have anything to do with anything…

Comment by pieceofpie— May 2, 2010 #