The most recent free verse poems by Mel Irvine.
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)
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 […]
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 […]
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
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
I Am Ready to Fly (4/5/2016) - i am ready to fly and the wind is with me … © 2016 Melinda Irvine The lovely painting was inside an old book called ‘Fairyland’ by Ida Rentoul Outhwaite. I found in the shearing shed at my grandmother’s farm when it was cleaned up for sale in 2014. The book was badly damaged and […]
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 […]
Vanish (12/7/2016) - I can vanish the moon. Oh, it’s so easy to delete moons, sand spinifex grass and old memories. Keeping stuff is much harder. © Melinda Irvine Daily Prompt: Vanish
Public Transport (1/29/2018) - .. stancia ma’am … Estancia . .. ma’ … we both fit inside cooling pizza pressed to knees my head cracks the thin metal roof and the rider (his knees pointing upward) sweep the metal handles connected to the brakes he makes room for two more (side saddled and awkward) gripping plastic bags filled with […]
Lemon Tree Flats (3/28/2015) - driving to the lemon tree flats i am a passenger for the first time in months (maybe longer) laughing more than my body can remember i sit in back while we stop for lizards lizards with beards and long tails (tails longer than our stories) sit inside shared binoculars. gravel dust already dry road covers […]
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
Unmoored (5/22/2017) - adrift in the wash bucket he climbed my arm unmoored © 2017 Melinda J. Irvine Daily Post: Adrift and Unmoored
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 […]
Black Rock Swamp (3/12/2015) - dirty old swamp transformed to a mirror i ran little in you once long before the rain came dark green river grass flower filled stamens and tangled paperbarks. now sunset fragments sparkling stagnant water decaying long rotting log lumpy water i found my bridge and reached it will you? © 2015 Melinda Irvine
Curtains of the Old House (12/12/2016) - Curtains take many forms. Mystical screens weave twelve decades of secrets. © Melinda Irvine Daily Prompt: Mystical
No Passenger (7/3/2017) - all the day she waits as afternoons roar with no passenger © 2017 Melinda J. Irvine Daily Post: Passenger I’m part of Post A Day 2017
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 […]
Don’t Drink the Pink (8/17/2017) - In the Philippines don’t drink the pink pepsi You might find her a little too spicy … © 2017 Melinda J. Irvine Daily Prompt: Spicy I’m part of Post A Day 2017
Leaving the Temple (3/28/2017) - wreathed boy spoke limestone or held bird © 2017 Melinda J. Irvine Photo: Limestone statuette of a boy with a wreath of leaves
Where Hands Fall (12/1/2017) - where my hands fell (a single blade extensive by the wind) as much a knife as the anthropod animals eat their lunch in tiny bites © 2017 Melinda J. Irvine Daily Post: Bite I’m part of Post A Day 2017 Location: Beunavista, Guimaras Island (Philipppines)
A Simple Island Life (5/9/2017) - Each morning begins before the sun appears over the cliff raining daylight along the leeward living below our 21st century sun. Monkeys grab at fruit scraps (sometime pets) a few chickens and fecund dogs wander a small shore. Children squeal to the high tide where fathers disappear aft along the rough netted and roped they […]
Even If They Are Not Ours (10/8/2017) - is it the familiarity of old things not ours? long since fashionable trinkets and jewels not ours the imagined pleasure of an old memory not ours that we find ourselves? in old wooden halls not ours? © 2017 Melinda J. Irvine This is my response to the Blogging University course Writing: Intro to Poetry (Day […]
Laundry Soap (11/30/2015) - the Plaza Molo transformed. where is lawn grown green that seated last December? dead lifeless garden remnants “are you drawing church?” asks policeman, pointing to red notebook ‘no’ hear myself reply ‘writing it’ smiles approvingly denied rain centuried brick falling vine casacades past iron rusted peaks while sun scorched leaves dry season Mary sitting stained […]
Someday (1/13/2017) - We will watch the sunset painting names in bright colours (like a family). © 2017 Melinda Irvine Daily Prompt: Someday
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 […]
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 […]
At the Back (6/28/2017) - decades turned this wheel like clothes worn, falling into that place at the back © 2017 Melinda J. Irvine Daily Post: Wheel and Knackered I’m part of Post A Day 2017
Botanical gardens sprinkler (3/2/2015) - you 3am stalker thrusting your jets upon my wide open windows GO TO SLEEP! © 2015 Mel Irvine
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)
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 […]
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
Christmas in Retreat (12/27/2016) - 3.30am neighbours finally silent, interstate plates homed. the street has wound down to wind and a few last lights: Christmas in retreat. © 2016 Melinda Irvine Daily Prompt: Retreat
Click here to permanently delete your account (11/12/2015) - Feeling strangely like cyanide The killing of my digital self I am afraid So bold hours ago I made lists So I would do it properly Not miss a thing Kill everything Insecticide myself Yet here I am I am still here Here and here Both of us Still here Corporeal Digitised Is it murder? […]
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).
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 […]
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
Waiting for a Tide (4/25/2015) - vacant fishing boats and children’s voices call from somewhere inside. slow slow tide. ‘Filipino time’ admonishes grandmother (not for the last time) ‘no good’ 3 or 4 hours have trickled by while we wait and wait wait wait wait for a high tide to dislodge our transport we sit lunch stands tethered to a bamboo […]
The House of Ants (5/4/2018) - I met a man today on a wooden ferry boat and between the two islands he told me a story. His story, of two boys once seven and once nine when their mother who died. Unable to make a sound (their torn faces, tears contained yet completely silent) the smallest boy fell completely unconscious to […]