Honestly, it’s always a thrill to be published in Overland. The journal has been a favourite for me since I was in my 20s, maybe younger. Who can remember? Issue 251 is filled with great pieces of prose and poetry. Dan Disney’s essay – grave sites – is fantastic, and Barry Corr’s – Finding a way – is also great.
The whole issue is worth a look, you can get a copy or subscribe here.
I’ve had a run of sound and music poems out over the last few months…I think this is the final one! This one is thinking about the strangeness of 20th and 21st century sounds, how they surround us with weirdness. Right now I’m sitting in a room, the washing machine is going in the bathroom and out the window people are doing some kind of erratic jack hammer work, oh and the cat is meowing, and I’m typing – there’s plenty happening.
Anyway, the poem is called Soundscape, here it is…
Soundscape – Rico Craig
A century scribbling auditory signatures,
slithering decade uncoiling cords, smacking
a wooden floor. Charger heartbeat. Crack a spiderwebbed
screen whispers when it lands. Muffled electric
car terror humming to life. A drone’s witch-like
passing. In the oceans, nuclear propulsion bubbling,
plastic waves pushing against each other, squealing
from their mute gyre, the final croak
birds gawk from gummed stomachs.
Two tongues weave language, the tread tyres
make on a newly laid road, on dust
crushed from recently broken mountains.
Motorised transport, skateboard, bicycle
their footpath stalking. The solicitude voices offer,
the way they seem to be, always in the air, waiting.
What it takes to break the auditory atmosphere,
blast of exit velocity. Headphones invading
an ear canal: opinion, aggrieved sound waves,
stolen music, speculations and conspiracies, forgotten
murders. The reason everyone has a lyric tattooed
on their side, upside down it looks like noise, it’s what I say
with my body — blip, blip, Casio third key from the right —
play it again, play it again so we remember to laugh this time.
And a reminder…my latest collection – Nekhau is available here! Enjoy!
Rico Craig 