driving rain

driving rain
a road rushed with desperation:
we all want to be home

in hot water, still

in hot water, still
with pumice and frangipani
still the tired heels peel

Getting Fresh

A week has now passed since the nation sang and danced and drank convivially with the sheer joy of witnessing the birth of our new federal government. Well, most of us, anyway. You know who you are. And while I was privately and vainly willing myself into a utopian future, say 15 years from now, when someone a lot like Bob or Julia would be elected instead, I must admit I do trust Kevin, for now. Like a secret weekend lover he whispered pleas into our hearts to take a chance, a risk. After all, how could anyone remain faithful to his cuckold, a lying, cheating, hoary warmonger whose only redeeming feature in eleven years, to my mind at least, lay in his retaliatory action to remove guns from the general Australian population? Even then, it was apparently still okay to kill and maim and deny basic human rights to practically everyone else whose lives and livelihoods unfortunately depended on him. So, in the afterglow of that fateful big Saturday night tryst, we have all awoken with a new man; one who promises the earth, moon and stars, and care and education for our children. He might actually apologise occasionally, and not just for stuffing up the accounts. He tantalised us with his ‘fresh ideas’, as though he effortlessly threw together a handful of succulent salad leaves while we waited hungrily in anticipation. And it seems now he wants to stay a while. I hope he calls. He looks like quite a catch, really.

And in case you were wondering, while I adore the subject of politics in theory and take genuine interest in these current events, I am not in the habit of writing about either so please consider this an aberration, brought on by blessed relief and a renewed ability to breathe normally. I reserve my high hopes and great expectations for another party, some other promising Saturday night. In the meantime, I will try to observe proceedings quietly, maybe just letting myself be seduced a little now and again.

On a relevant and infinitely more serious note, I did find this article particularly interesting. Thank you to my good friend, T, who supplied it.

For those who are curious, Steve Biddulph is a psychologist and author of many progressive books on raising small people of one kind or another. The parents among you are probably quite familiar with him. For everyone else, here he is.

smile full of nipple

smile full of nipple
miles of little dresses, blow
rain is coming soon

Essential Readings For Children

Some picture books with a human rights, environmental, spiritual, philosophical or magical message:

‘The Giving Tree’ by Shel Silverstein
‘The Keeping Quilt’ by Patricia Polacco
‘A Sailing Boat in the Sky’, ‘Angel Pavement’, and the ‘Mrs Armitage: Queen of the Road’ Series by Quentin Blake
‘Shhh!’, ‘Manky Monkey’, ‘Misery Moo’, and ‘Tadpole’s Promise’ by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross
‘Stone Soup’, ‘Zen Shorts’ and ‘The Three Questions’ by Jon J. Muth
‘An Extraordinary Egg’, ‘The Greentail Mouse’, ‘Frederick’, and ‘Inch by Inch’ by Leo Lionni
‘The Tiny Seed’, ‘A House for Hermit Crab’, and ‘Draw Me a Star’ by Eric Carle
‘Belonging’, ‘The Story of Rosy Dock’, ‘The Hidden Forest’, ‘Home in the Sky’, ‘Where The Forest Meets the Sea’, and ‘Window’ by Jeannie Baker
‘The Wizard Comes to Town’ and ‘One Monster After Another’ by Mercer Mayer
‘Cloudland’, ‘Oi! Get Off Our Train’, ‘Whadyamean?’, ‘The Magic Bed’, ‘Husherbye’, ‘Seasons’ and the ‘Mr Gumpy’ Series by John Burningham
‘Slow Loris’ and ‘Beegu’ by Alexis Deacon
‘In the Night Kitchen’ and ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ by Maurice Sendak
‘Imagine’, ‘Magic Beach’ and ‘The Journey Home’ by Alison Lester
‘Lizzie Nonsense’ and ‘Sunshine’ by Jan Ormerod
‘Jinnie Ghost’ by Berlie Doherty, illustrated by Jane Ray
‘Can You Catch a Mermaid?’ by Jane Ray
‘The King of Capri’ by Jeanette Winterson, illustrated by Jane Ray
‘Oscar Wilde’s The Star Child’ by Stella Maidment
‘Big Mama Makes the World’ by Phyllis Root
‘Wynken, Blynken and Nod’ by Eugene Field
‘The Pea Blossom’ by Amy Lowry Poole
‘Can You See a Little Bear?’ and ‘Miranda the Explorer’ by James Mayhew
‘The Nativity’ by Julie Vivas
‘The Night Eater’ by Ana Juan
‘The Thistle Princess’ by Vivian French
‘Hello Baby’ by Jenni Overend and Julie Vivas
‘The Bunyip of Berkeley’s Creek’ by Jenny Wagner
‘Dinosaurs and All That Rubbish’ by Michael Foreman
‘Polly and the Privet Bird’ by Ann & Reg Cartwright
‘Just Another Ordinary Day’ by Rod Clement
‘The Dragon of an Ordinary Family’ by Margaret Mahy
‘Islands in My Garden’ by Jim Howes and Roland Harvey
‘Flora’s Magic House’ by Binette Schroeder
‘Sunsoarer’ and ‘World Wanderer’ by Kumara Tarr
‘The Eagle and the Wren’ by Jane Goodall
‘The Sun Is Laughing: A Collection of Poems’ by Sue Ellis
‘A Cloak For the Moon’ by Eric A. Kimmel
‘Children Of the Dragon: Selected Tales from Vietnam’ by Sherry Garland
‘Sanji and the Baker’ and the ‘Winnie the Witch’ Series by Korky Paul
‘The Hollyhock Wall’ by Martin Waddell
‘Land of The Brolga People’ and ‘The Quinkins’ by Percy Trezise
‘Facing the Tiger’ by Kerri Pitts
‘Possum Magic’, ‘Hunwick’s Egg’, ‘Wombat Divine’, and ‘The Magic Hat’ by Mem Fox
‘Miss Lily’s Fabulous Pink Feather Boa’, and ’My Dearest Dinosaur’ by Margaret Wild
‘Skip Across the Ocean: Nursery Rhymes From Around the World’ by Florella Benjamin
‘The Star People: A Lakota Story’ by S.D. Nelson
‘Leaves for Mr Walter’ by Janeen Brian
‘One Child’ by Christopher Cheng
‘Amelia Ellicott’s Garden’ by Liliana Stafford
‘The Yellow Balloon’ by Charlotte Dematons
‘Night Garden: Poems From the World of Dreams’ by Janet S. Wong
‘The Wooden Dragon’ by Joan Aiken
‘Rain Dance’ by Cathy Applegate
‘Wild Child’ by Lynn Plourde
‘Nothing At All’ by Wanda Gag
‘I Want to Paint My Bathroom Blue’ by Ruth Krauss
‘Limpopo Lullaby’ by Jane Jolly
‘The Quiltmaker’s Journey’ by Jeff Brumbeau
‘Djomi Dream Child’ by Christopher Fry
‘Brown Bread and Honey’ and ‘The Potato People’ by Pamela Allen
‘A Year On Our Farm’ by Penny Matthews
‘You, Me and the Rainbow’ by Petrea King
‘The Bachelor and the Bean’ by Shelley Fowles
‘Sophie’s Masterpiece: A Spider’s Tale’ by Eileen Spinelli
‘Sophie and Rose’ by Kathryn Lasky
‘The Song of Francis and the Animals’ by Pat Mora
‘Over In the Meadow’ by Ezra Jack Keats
‘Sunshine Showers and Four O’Clock Flowers’ by Pauline Stewart
‘Too Many Murkles’ by Heidi Charissa Schmidt
‘The Griffin and the Minor Canon’ by Frank R. Stockton
‘Loni and the Moon’ by Esther Takac

Also absolutely anything by Colin Thompson, Michael Morpurgo, Graham Base, Stephen Michael King, Irena Sibley, Jane Simmons and Lauren Child.

Some classics for slightly older children:

‘The Magic Finger’ and ‘Matilda’ by Roald Dahl
‘Snugglepot and Cuddlepie’ by May Gibbs
‘The Magic Pudding’ by Norman Lindsay
‘Blinky Bill’ by Dorothy Wall
‘The Muddle-headed Wombat’ by Ruth Park
‘The Water Babies’ by Charles Kingsley
‘The Wind in the Willows’ by Kenneth Grahame
‘Alice in Wonderland’ and ‘Through the Looking Glass’ by Lewis Carroll
‘A Child’s Garden of Verse’ and ‘Treasure Island’ by Robert Louis Stevenson
‘Winnie The Pooh’ Series by A.A. Milne
‘Narnia’ Series by C.S. Lewis
‘Taran The Adventurer’ Series by Lloyd Alexander
‘A Wrinkle in Time’ by Madeleine L’Engle
‘Pippi Longstocking’ and ‘Mirabelle’ by Astrid Lindgren
‘Peter Pan’ by J.M. Barrie
‘The Railway Children’ by E. Nesbit
‘Gulliver’s Travels’ by Jonathan Swift
‘The Magic Faraway Tree’ Series by Enid Blyton
‘The Wonderful O’ by James Thurber

All fairy tales and fables by Hans Christian Andersen, The Brothers’ Grimm, and Aesop.

This is by no means a finite list so please let me know if there are some really obvious amazing titles I could add. I love sharing ideas about children’s literature because, as you can see, it’s a passion of mine. It all helps to build the world we want to live in.

a live fish swims lithe

a live fish swims lithe
alive, glass eyes in a bowl
roll to the underside

slow day slides by, wet

slow day slides by, wet
‘n’ wild, welcome to the coast,
where feet drive by, not
a thong out of place, diving
into stainless paradise