I’m doing GloPoWriMo / NaPoWriMo again this April, since I had such a great time of it last year.
It’s kind of fitting that I’m at a writer’s retreat this weekend. So I’m looking at the Alps (above) from my hotel room window, but I’m thinking about my life back in Sydney because I’m doing this writing course about memoir.
This poem came from the GloPo prompt, which was to write a poem in the style of Kay Ryan, the US poet laureate from 2008-2010. According to GloPo a Kay-Ryanesque poem is: short, tight lines, rhymes interwoven throughout, maybe an animal or two, and, if you can manage to stuff it in, a sharp little philosophical conclusion. (I actually think a lot of my poems work out like this anyway, so this wasn’t too big a stretch!)
My course prompt was to write using your special knowledge of something. I thought about the walk I used to do everyday from home to school along a straight street, listening to my music. Then, a few years later, my walk from home to work along another long, straight street – Wilson Street in Newtown/Redfern – usually listening to Elephant by the White Stripes. At the end of this walk, one morning in Februrary 2004, I passed through the aftermath of the Redfern riots over the weekend.
Plus – the added bonus of spoken word! (link below)
After today, I’ll put this explanatory stuff at the bottom, underneath my poems. Enjoy!
Elephant
the steps I took
to walk to school
were only mine
no other fool
could walk it as I did
listening to songs
my footsteps
tapping along over
concrete where
my name was scratched
several times
then
on another tread
the street beside
the railway tracks
where at the end
the bricks
did meet
and clash terrible
while
I
(and Jack & Meg)
strode on by
with our nice lives
Soundcloud link: https://soundcloud.com/user-808707280/elephant
clairevetica 
The Fool card suggests a way of walking to and through in a harmonic which is here yet more essentially the speaker’s where, wherever that elsewhere be. Walking to one’s own beats, on streets washed clean by song. Glad you offered this to the Imaginary garden!
Oh, those lovely walks home from school. A mile in rural Nebraska. Of them I have memories, some still laughable, others made me cry at the time. I hated it when the big kids ran away. They knew, my cousin and one other big kid would rescue me.
Your writing seminar sounds wonderful, such a beautiful setting. Mrs. Jim and I spent three vernice days in January, 2025 at Sydney. If I ever run away Sydney will be my stay again.
I’ve noformal courses in writing. My text was “The Poetry Repair Handbook” by the ex Poet Laurate of Nebraska.
Thank you again, best wishes on the next twenty-nine.
..
“very nice” you bad auto spelling corrector machine.
Nice one. Wish to be at that retreat!
I used to walk to and from school every day in rain, snow and sleet. I think it made me a better person for it.
I didn’t walk to school, but I scoured the woods around me for hours at a time. I hope you enjoyed your retreat. I love the photo.
I must have another look at Kay Ryan! Didn’t like her stuff on brief acquaintance, but this spare style is actually very effective. Lovely little sting in the tail too. (I’m an Aussie, so I get the implications of the Redfern riots.)
Thankyou! I hadn’t read any Kay Ryan before 4 days ago but I really enjoyed her stuff 🙂
Thank you …. I especially like the spoken word of it.