The most recent free verse poems by Mel Irvine.
Someday (1/13/2017) - We will watch the sunset painting names in bright colours (like a family). © 2017 Melinda Irvine Daily Prompt: Someday
Little Wizard (5/20/2017) - you replay crouching behind a tricycle and surprising me with your collected “love potion” swirling leaves and flowers and petals “you will fall in love tita mel!” you shouted showering me in your wish. then once more for you. © 2017 Melinda J. Irvine
Unknown Artists (6/15/2017) - city speaks her name lurid voices piss, the stained human shit a siren behind their streets his only triumph © 2017 Melinda J. Irvine Daily Post: Triumph I’m part of Post A Day 2017 This is my contribution for the Blogging-U course Photography: Developing Your Eye II (Day 10 Triumph).
Buying Fish (6/27/2017) - dodging rain tubs filled with last night my morning begins along mud splatters and shouts of ‘Ma’am! “You buy? Ma’am, you buy!” my green rubber thongs step around two tiny girls in freshly checked uniforms and bits of sun shine where there once was roof the local fish market is alive as I find the […]
From the Black Forest (12/5/2016) - Fundraising to adopt Jerry has really binded my family as we all search for once sacred relics to sell. This little wooden bear was handed over enthusiastically with detailed instructions for pricing (which I will strictly adhere to as this little poem illustrates). “DON’T SELL That bear,” shouts mum. “blah blah blah thE BLACK FOREST BLAH to cheap […]
Ignoring Safety Advice (10/4/2016) - in the beginning i remember thinking … i will never ever board one of those dodgy carnival rides circling fiestas their steel support posts levelled out on rocks and pieces of concrete rubble. but yeh, i did. and yeh, i do. you change your perspective ignoring safety advice you allow yourself to become, to be part […]
On the Street Today (8/7/2018) - men with an oozing bellies calm fighting roosters water boiled by fire, pours to a plastic bucket duck eggs, grilled corn, peanuts hot, salted by hand flapping tarps and bright umbrellas wet school shoes sirens sounds, and shredded traffic a small boy takes my hand on the street today.
Smile for a sack of rice (11/3/2015) - they know exactly why they are smiling why I was arriving at 10.30 in the morning why they had to put on pants and shoes eldest sister points her little brother to the camera light smile for a sack of rice starving mamma sold their blanket smile for a sack of rice “i know there […]
Calm (12/23/2016) - There are no concepts inside the waves: nothing made up or imagined. Inside the waves there is only truth, fact, here and a deepening calm. © 2016 Melinda Irvine Daily Prompt: Calm
My Mother’s Garden (6/29/2016) - my mother’s garden is older than me in places (it has places) i have never stood or seen until now, remembering cedar trees (dad planted them when we were little) and weekends spent collecting bush seeds, saplings and native vines, repotted in the school holidays when the other kids in the street visited the city […]
Rice On the Road (8/30/2016) - We walk along wet roadside picturing the new sunlight on rice farms, fathers and hardwork. Barefeet turn drying rice as trucks beep confused alarm at the white woman and small brown boy out in unsheltered heat. Flood water rushes through our pictures, seeing all green and green and green until three heads stand staring (like the […]
New Horizon (12/11/2016) - “I will come back here, new horizons, wildflowers and rest call me.” As I promise to my cousin I do wonder though … … will I come back here? © 2016 Melinda Irvine Weekly Photo Challenge: New Horizon
Inside a Tree (8/22/2016) - i wish i could give you the beauty of this tree how (even in all this) rusted bars dirty glass framed with grime and plastic tubes roaring air-con dust clad window noise little pieces of wire strung bits of stuff tied around frayed man-made edges and old broken pipes, yet remains a life. half-way up […]
The Island of Stars (6/29/2017) - to the top we climbed in the sunny shining “ulihi ulihi gid kami” they passed us by going to the down we are so late so very very late © 2017 Melinda J. Irvine Daily Post: Sunny I’m part of Post A Day 2017
What You Don’t See (7/9/2017) - Photographing the top of sugar cane you can’t see a group of kids following me along the hot road running back to a little bridge when I turn around. You don’t see a man under that sun waving in delight as I photograph his poverty, spraying poison on the rice without any mask. You won’t […]
Hands (5/22/2018) - His hands opened Her’s holding onto love mine filled with photographs another’s rasping my shoulder for money © 2018 Melinda J. Irvine Daily Post: Awkward I’m part of Post A Day 2018 Location: La Paz, Iloilo (Philipppines)
Over This Wall (6/22/2018) - Over this wall is a shopping centre aircon and security guards thousands of people over this wall Over the wall is a gasoline station aircon and fancy cars thousands of drivers over the wall Over that wall is a man washing his t-shirt in a puddle near a family on cardboard behind thousands over that wall […]
the public market (6/1/2016) - hanging resting smoking standing waiting © 2016 Melinda Irvine
You Do Not Burn (10/9/2017) - When everyone ran, you remained the grim landscape the same colour as your dress and quiet genius as bushfires licked your garters you laughed that same laugh for decades. Old years pass and turn though just your slip remains you do not burn. © 2017 Melinda J. Irvine This is my response to the Blogging […]
Maxine’s First Christmas (12/30/2017) - we wrapped it in tinsel green, red paper torn her toy mouse tethered to a lower branch the best present a little boy held © 2017 Melinda J. Irvine Daily Post: Cozy I’m part of Post A Day 2017 Location: Estancia, Iloilo (Philipppines)
Layers of a Tree (1/9/2017) - Infinite layers of years, of bark, of living. Yet he can be told. © 2017 Melinda Irvine Daily Prompt: Infinite
No Extra Charge for Ants (8/20/2016) - i know we think our medical system is flawed (most likely it is) BUT have you ever seen an australian baby in our hospitals fanned by an old piece of cardboard, their IV drip hung on a window latch, and ants crawling over their little body while their tired mum wonders how she will pay for […]
Navigating the Backroads (10/28/2016) - home is a tangle of paperbarks home is dad’s buckled old ute full of brown dogs home is a black-sanded pathway past the swamp home is an osprey’s nest rebuilt again last year home is the sound of glossy blacks cracking she-oaks not far from the track home is a murky-green forestry dam where dad […]
Time (7/1/2016) - time passes slowly before me each particle every fragment finding its own place finding its own time floating alone not lonely © 2016 Melinda Irvine
Endless Energy (6/22/2017) - Jerry my little loop-de-loop from sun to gone, it sleeps but it never stops © 2017 Melinda J. Irvine Daily Post: Loop I’m part of Post A Day 2017
Beneath Us a Poem (6/26/2017) - frayed texture almost silent poetry under foot © 2017 Melinda J. Irvine Daily Post: Yarn I’m part of Post A Day 2017
The Mental Health Section (6/19/2017) - Thumbing the sketchbook I find the mental health section Volume 1: “She Thought She Might Implode:” In Blue Biro. Volume 2: (Out of Print) © 2017 Melinda J. Irvine Daily Post: Detonate and Volume I’m part of Post A Day 2017
Lady with Orange Flowers (11/2/2017) - paying 10 pesos for photographs and a peek into her life Day of the Dead floral tributes hand woven (her own hands) into little bamboo baskets the hands of the poor in every bunch. © 2017 Melinda J. Irvine Daily Prompt: Mystery and Orange Weekly Photo Challenge: Peek I’m part of Post A Day 2017 Location: […]
His last hours (12/10/2015) - “When you receive this letter, I shall be dead by then…. Tomorrow at seven, I shall be shot; but I am innocent of the crime of rebellion…. I am going to die with a tranquil conscience.” José Rizal © 2015 Melinda Irvine All photographs were taken of various artworks at the Rizal Shrine Museum, Fort […]
I Blinked (1/21/2018) - while your eyes were closed i died blink k blink nk blink ink blink link blink blink blink blink © 2018 Melinda J. Irvine Daily Post: Blink I’m part of Post A Day 2018 Location: Estancia, Iloilo (Philipppines)
A Weekend of Rest (1/20/2017) - a weekend of rest, (I’m still blogging though for fun) back in his country reunited us wandering the festive streets remembering us in bright streets transformed the Dinagyang aesthetic a weekend of rest © 2017 Melinda Irvine Daily Prompt: Aesthetic and Overworked
Choices (12/16/2015) - who do you choose? gifted kids? poor families good grades always in school doctors dentists teachers ‘good’ boys always in school but what about other kids? poor families bad grades never in school laundry-work cleaners begging ‘bad’ girls never in school © 2015 Melinda Irvine It is easy to choose ‘good’ kids for sponsorship. To […]
Should I be … (7/7/2018) - magnifying bits and pieces of something not mine? When you bring your life into the street, is it still yours?
The Captain Cook Bar and Grill (9/29/2017) - his face remains the historic statue static our dead at our mercy (us) the lifeless living alive under him remembrance at will and they we are dead still © 2017 Melinda J. Irvine This is my response to the Blogging University course Writing: Intro to Poetry (Day 2 Face ) Daily Prompt: Irrelevant I’m part of Post […]
Wretched Heritage (5/20/2017) - i am living a tradition my eyes pieces of tin, metal scraps for hands feet (torn nails) just look at my toes! but don’t get too close you don’t want to see all i’ve got © 2017 Melinda J. Irvine Weekly Photo Challenge: Heritage
Helicopters Came and Broke the World (9/11/2017) - “I want to live there” he sees something beautiful in a painted book of peace From a Distance “Helicopters came and broke the world” he shouts upset He can’t comprehend What all this war is for This wonderful book was found in a pile of second hand books in a little department store in a rural […]
September 20 (7/4/2017) - It is not what you remember that is surprising it’s what you forget. Only hours later a FB photo emerges, or a video. And the fine details (already forgotten) seem to delight, then shock you. Tiny nuances, the sound of shoes the shriek of an animal or the ridiculousness of really poor young men in […]
New England Harvest (11/29/2016) - displaying all the Australian blues, greens and golds, I am home again. © 2016 Melinda Irvine