The October Game...

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The October Game (1948) - Ray Bradbury



He had never liked October
when winds release the annual 
sad season

those autumn leaves
lying
down
so disconnected
and the trees
feeling
so empty

tonight
especially tonight
he could be just another autumn leaf
but then
he could also be
the tree

THE tree

for
now
at last
he could drag her
down 
into the dark webby roots of hell
his hell

and then
walk into the dark light of 
another 
subterranean
room

and at least

secretly smile

The Wreck of the Golden Mary...

The Wreck of the Golden Mary (1857) - Charles Dickens
Kindle edition
BUT
It was written in partnership with Wilkie Collins
I am the Captain of the Golden Mary, Mr. Collins is the Mate 
- Dickens told Angela Burdett-Coutts (Letters 8: 231)
Angela Burdett-Coutts was a 19th century philanthropist.
With Charles Dickens, she co-founded a home for young women prone to theft and prostitution.
The home was known as Urania Cottage.
Further, Dickens dedicated his novel Martin Chuzzlewit to her and many other friends.


it's nigh on Christmas

aging Captain Ravender
craves 
more living
on the high seas
on the Golden Mary

I am so tired of darkness

but his living
becomes
a shared shipwreck
becomes
a shared survival

leading
souls
to friendly
and not so friendly
inner strengths

too soon
a ghastly white moon
pierces
the darkness

for some

and a little child
keeps her doll

forever

she made a doll of the Golden Mary



Linking to;
Poetry Pantry #260

MY GOODREADS REVIEW
 Wreck of the Golden Mary by Charles Dickens
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Very brief and very scintillating. This fast-paced narrative could be a Canterbury Tale on the high seas. After all, stories are told and songs sung to pass the time. This could be a parable... all that glistens is not gold, but some golds are priceless. A shipwreck allows time to magnify loose threads in characters who are cast outside the usual regime of society. And, like a Pied Piper, Captain Ravender encourages the passengers to find courage and hope within. So interesting that the Golden Mary was headed for the Californian goldfields and the child with shining fair hair is nicknamed Golden Lucy. So many metaphors tantalise this tale. A small treasure.

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MY AMAZON AUSTRALIA REVIEW 
sea drama...
This tale of the sea dives quickly into action. There are thoughts of being lured to the 19th century discovery of gold in California, but ultimately, the story is all about how personalities react to the challenge of a shipwrecked Golden Mary. And then there is the strange obsession of one passenger for a child that is not his. The narrative is very brief, but still it whisks the reader into a breathless climax... There's a feeling that there could have been far more to the story. An unexpected tale from the 19th century master of writing novels which usually are grounded in cities and explore the social colours of levels of society. Perhaps this narrative suggests a particular, pervading enthusiasm for adventure in worlds beyond English society. I have given this fragment a 5 star rating mainly because it represents a refreshing, alternative perspective of the Charles Dickens that we think we know.

Journal of an Expedition...

Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia (1848) 
by Sir Thomas Mitchell (1792-1855) - Surveyor-General of New South Wales
Kindle edition


there must be a river to the Gulf

the Darling tribes may be hostile
unlike tribes near the coastal colony

but there must be a river to the Gulf

convicts strengthen my numbers
and drays carry our loads

there must be a river
there must be a river
there must be a river to the Gulf

acacias and
jasmine
for beauty
melons and
quandangs
for
taste

this tropical realm
swings 
lazily
sharply
from
sultry airs by day
to frosts by night


there is a river
there is a river
falling far and far north west

I verily believed that THIS river would run to Carpentaria, and I called it the Nive...


but he didn't know
couldn't know
the river flows west to Tambo
and then

flows south


NOTE
The Nive River is a tributary of the Warrego River (south-west Queensland)
which in turn, flows into the Darling River at Bourke in western New South Wales..
The Warrego is the northernmost tributary of the Darling.

MY GOODREADS REVIEW

 Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia by Thomas Mitchell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In the mid 19th century, Thomas Mitchell set out on his 4th expedition in Australia. He wanted to find a river that flowed from the inland to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north; he wanted to find a sound, overland route from Sydney in the south to the Gulf; he wanted a closer connection with shipping and Singapore. Mitchell recorded his experiences from Parramatta in New South Wales to inland Queensland in a journal. He included meticulous details of plants found and changing weather patterns. This is not an exciting read of adventures. It is more an intimate insight into living out a dream day to day. Mesmerising.

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MY AMAZON REVIEW 
going west...
A journal that details plants, terrain and weather... And shows just how treacherous trying to stay connected with water can be... How valiantly exploring surveyors toiled, with a passion, to open up our knowledge of the unknown. Here too are interesting comments on native people... Their wisdom is highly respected... Convicts find a purpose and a measure of self-worth when they team up with the exploring party. The journal represents an opportunity to see through someone else's eyes and to walk in their shoes.

Erasmus James...

Erasmus James, King of Kid's Paradise (2008) by D.C. Green




I was modelled on weirdness

Dad gave me the gift of Zapp World
and I flew

Inside every head swirls a galaxy of zapp stars and
planets formed with the big bang of being born.

like a helipad
transportable

Every living person possesses their
own unique zapp universe, filled with worlds created
from the same subconscious cauldron that generates
dreams in bubbles of hope and fear.


like  the universe beyond Neverland
that Peter Pan 
overlooked

MY GOODREADS REVIEW
Erasmus James, King of Kid’s Paradise by D.C. Green
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It was one of those bleary, wet winter days when I had my fill of reading and writing mind challenging words. I felt like a good dose of crazy. And I found it in this book. OK! I grant it is for young ones wanting a young hero in a fast wild adventure. But then, it does the older one good to venture into a young 'no man's land' for awhile.
Raz's dad declares that '...the Zapp Principle sucks our legs into our ears in a hyper-paced spinning loop that shrinks us to the perfect size to materialise on a zapp world inside the cortex vortex of your fiendish boy brain.’ Yes! It's out there...
Raz becomes king of of his own paradise, but even paradise has its rats...in this land, Grats. And Raz loathes rats.
‘Grats are essential to the running of Kid’s Paradise, King E,’ said Zara. ‘They clean, cook and perform other chores, plus various religious–’
Raz's paradise teaches him a thing or two that even a fun paradise needs appreciation of all living things, appreciating what they have to offer and learning that he too must give a little.
Perhaps I have been a little harsh in the rating. But then, I'm not a kid anymore looking for a kid's world. I've grown up...I think...

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The Mystery of Edwin Drood

Kindle edition



there is
no railway to Cloisterham
the city 
of lost souls

Travellers Twopenny
is warped
distorted
like the morals
of the travellers

stonemason Durdles leads
a hazy gyspy life

Helena 
is a huntress with
the presence of a gypsy
her brother is
a hunter
untamed

Mr Tartar is
a roving sailor

Rosebud
knows of 
no relation in the world

but Jasper
haunts
enslaves
her thoughts


there is no railway to Cloisterham

and Mr Sapsea says
there never should be


Linking to;
The Tuesday Platform - Real Toads

MY GOODREADS REVIEW

The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The ancient cathedral town of Cloisterham shivers on the brink of yesterday's darkness with little impulse to move out into the light of a future. Crypts and monuments seem to set this town's people in some Druidic ring of judgment. Edwin Drood's imminent arranged marriage to Rosebud dissolves into his strange disappearance and possible, but never confirmed, murder. Brother and sister Neville and Helen Landless seem to be burdened with some shady tragic pressures from past lives in Ceylon and John Jasper, the choirmaster seems to be burying pain - physical or mental? - in opium time. Even the small characters seem to carry seedy secrets. The Deputy is a wild young boy a drunken Jasper pays to stone him home. And then there are the caricatures - an immovable waiter and a flying waiter??? Dickens' mystery probes unsettling extracts of humanity. The narrative is incomplete, but then, do we ever know all there is to know about the crevasses of humanity? This must be an example of a dark and timeless drama.

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AMAZON REVIEW
Mysteries Within Mysteries
The old cathedral town of Cloisterham stages many covert dramas. Edwin Drood's possible murder may be the drive of Dickens' last narrative, but there are other parallel mysteries. Mr Honeythunder is the guardian of brother and sister, Helena and Neville. They come from Ceylon, but are not Ceylonese? Neville claims that he knows little of his guardian? Mr John Jasper, guardian of Edwin Drood is "a dark man"? And why does Jasper, as choirmaster, need to depend so heavily on opium? Why is Mr Sapsea, the auctioneer, described as a jackass? At times, even the names and brief descriptions of the characters seem to suggest some extra, unexplained elements. Dickens' Drood mystery may not be resolved, but it seems that many other threads in this narrative have not been developed and resolved either. An intriguing piece of writing, cut short by Dickens' death. The incompleteness is all part of the dramatic charm.

Roger Ascham...

flaming torches

grizzly spikes

a dark dungeon

in an old castle

cannibalised

for university

progress

I love to know the inner workings of things

women

aflame

spiked

cannibalised

for personal

hungry

progress

I love to know the inner workings of things

MY GOODREADS REVIEW
Roger Ascham and the King's Lost Girl by Matthew Reilly
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A flash of nightmare from the wells of the 16th century.
Sulphurous dirt leads Roger Ascham on a trail of murderous intrigue. Strangely, Henry VIII selected his daughter Elizabeth's teacher for this mission. But then, Henry claims that Roger has a logic in his madness and sees beyond the normal. Who would believe how so much tense, tantalising drama could be packed into so few pages.

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MY AMAZON REVIEW
Almost Gothic 
The future Queen Elizabeth and Henry VIII are characters in this narrative, but the spotlight is on professor Roger Ascham. In detective mode, he seeks Isabella, the love interest of the king. In an old castle dungeon area, Roger crosses paths with spikes, hanging cages and a scythe blade - all courtesy of the Earl of Cumberland's bastard son. A dark, fast dive into a seamy side of 16th century court life.

Lady Chatterley's Lover...

Lady Chatterley's Lover - Kindle edition


mechanical 
methodical
anarchy

living a vague life
at privileged
Wragby

privileged for some

but not 
for Connie


yet 
in the humble world
of the gamekeeper
Connie breathed

differently

MY GOODREADS REVIEW

Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Lady Connie Chatterley is locked in a plain, privileged life that should be led but longs for another life that fires the senses. She makes choices. For awhile, she pleases her disabled, wealthy, upper class, cerebral husband Clifford. But her own needs scream to be satisfied, to run wild in woods and feel the joys of love in a humble hut with her husband's game-keeper. Society frowns, but perhaps society is blind to natural connections.
The narrative is weighted to a love affair, but it stirs questions. Is society losing the value of feelings, of small things in the name of power and upper class attitudes. Is money evil?

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MY AMAZON REVIEW
For Love or Money...
Even though the fleshy scenes are here, somehow that is not what rears up for 21st century readers. There is the insistent reference to the evils of money. Money drives minds and hearts. Money is a curse on the future. All sense of physical pleasures are demoted, beholden to the language and lifestyle generated by money. So says Lady Chatterley's lover in between bed romps and lacing wildflowers in wet hair. The lady feels a prisoner in her privileged lifestyle with Clifford while her lover is not of the moneyed class...he tempts her wild senses...Perhaps Lawrence felt that the industrial worlds of the early 20th century were headed for a loss of physical, natural values. Interesting that Clifford and Connie had given names, like society's labels for each other. The lovers imagined their own names...

The Visionary

Kindle edition on Amazon

A little random Moonshot

a monumental something

ungrounded Trevor

passed on to Sean

someone's colours

someone else's eyes

and ultimately

he became

the eye

in the sky

We are all walking museums, housing our small portion of the epic human story.


MY GOOD READS REVIEW
 The Visionary by James Hawthorne
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Sean was looking out through someone else's eyes... many times... At first an intriguing perspective, but the tumbling of clipped scenarios became an exhausting parade of peaked drama that begged for some kind of resolution. The idea of psychic energy in action born of Moonshot became tired and frustratingly warped. Interesting fractures of 911 and Taliban tensions, but no special connection. They whipped by. Sanity was lost long before the final page. Sighhhhhhhhh

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MY AMAZON REVIEW
An interesting idea that stumbles...
Sean lives many pieces of life. Those pieces belong to others. At first, this special ability intrigues, but the welter of mind and life shifts that gather at the novel's climax become an irritation. From cheetah to alien? But I was determined to finish the book, just so I could say I finished it.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

 

Kindle edition on Amazon

he glittered

like a jewel of humanity

polished

youth

unattached

he painted a picture

of beauty

he WAS

the picture

wisdom

toyed with his mind

overturned

his soul

passed him by

a black future

framed

MY GOOD READS REVIEW
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Sparkling epigrammatic wit frames this dark plunge into the abyss of an errant young soul, a soul doomed to be forever young. The narrative could be labelled a thriller - there's murder afoot, a sci-fi journey - a painting becomes the dark journey of the human mind and spirit. And yet there are the settings locked in 19th century fashions and sophistications and devious games. Cast the labels aside, and perhaps there is the raw confessional, the secret, the private mirror, the picture of any age.

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MY AMAZON REVIEW 
A brilliant dive into the darkness of the soul...
A long time ago, I read this tale. I remember the dark tensions, but not the myriad dark signposts along the way to hell. Oscar Wilde has created a thriller streaked with wit and mayhem. A picture is worth a thousand, timeless words. It has the strength to be daring and the fragility to shatter like glass into millions of meaningless pieces.