Poems by Geoff Campbell - WORDS IN COMMON

The complete book of poems are available at
http://www.bookstore.bookpod.com.au/p/1193208/words-in-common.html
© Geoff Campbell (quotes from "Words in
Common" Ödrerir Press 2011) 1
Quotes from
Words in Common
Poems by
Geoff Campbell
(Melbourne Australia)
Launched February 2011 by Professor Kevin
Brophy (University of Melbourne);
edited by Professor Trevor Code;
photographs in the book, Elizabeth Gertsakis.

quotes from
Common" Ödrerir Press 2011)
2

Italians
Over our back fence
processions of beautiful vowels
hang like vines.
Also there’s tomatoes
wandering in yards
of red-faced children.
We cannot move
for baskets of fruit
on our doorstep.
We ponder the number
of words in common
and settle for a smile.
© Geoff Campbell (quotes from "Words in Common" Ödrerir
Press 2011)
3

My Mother
My mother isaworry,
wearereciprocal.
I am in lovewith her
and shethinksblood iswater
and boilsme, boilsme.
Our relationship isfluid,
wasfrom thestart.
with onemanly exception
I am her only
aspiration.
Press 2011)
4

Next Door
Some of us are children
till old age. Grandma and Greataunt were old.
In their yard we blew soap bubbles
into blaze of flowers
cradled in fresh-turned soil.
Today each petal smells
of Grandma and Greataunts’ hands;
no-one knows where flowers grow from,
yearly they rise from the dead.
© Geoff Campbell (quotes from "Words in Common" Ödrerir Press
2011)
5

The Big Pussycat
The world is full of Big Pussycats
who purr on peoples’ knees without mercy.
They develop a love never before known
between man and beast.
The Big Pussycat is eunuch and sensitive
so I whisper when he’s near.
He worships Cod.
6

The Vegetarian
Standing out front
of a butcher shop window
there’s something grotesque
full of meat
staring back at me.
He seems holding a banner
© Geoff Campbell (quotes from "Words in Common"
Ödrerir Press 2011)
7

Cape Schanck
Volcanic plugs march single file into froth
to spite squall and slow motion water that grasps
in mimic forms of rock.
8

Cape Schank II
to gaze on expanses of sunset and swear
Midas had touched the sea
not to mention God, Who’d obviously been
fashioning rugged paths for weary pilgrims
9

Cleaner’s Binge
I try to overlook
pickled underwear in the tea-urn,
my stack of clean plates
imploded back in cupboards.
© Geoff Campbell (quotes from "Words in Common" Ödrerir Press 2011) 10

Man Waiting by a Ballet School
He stands part aware and cornered
seduced repeatedly by chance
tight legs sixteen and meshing
into the schoolyard.
Far off ballerinas start out young
and aware of his standing.
© Geoff Campbell (quotes from "Words in Common" Ödrerir Press
2011)
11

Passers of Time
Outside83 GertrudeSt
men watch dust grow into their shoes
whereabottle-cracked head bloodies
asspeech out of gutters.
Theambulancehurtsinside.
Press 2011)
12

Mixed Rendezvous
That night we first bedded
the apparition of your shockhaired ex
leapt out of the passageway
spreading the cats as usual
freaking and freaked.
© Geoff Campbell (quotes from
"Words in Common" Ödrerir Press
2011) 13

Solitaire
Best friend, wife
and reason to think of swans,
when breading the lake waters
I felt you’d out-laugh the gulls
with your phantom presence.
14

Baby Sitting Overnight
Sacrosanct from children
a chimney pulls up smoke
into chill brazen air,
a bird sings
marking the observation.
2011) 15

At Preston Market
The sun glints bargains
in the eyes and nostrils of shoppers
in the place of fallen fruit
butchers patrol aisles with their voices
motioning through carcass and mute ox-tongues.
© Geoff Campbell (quotes from "Words in Common" Ödrerir Press 2011)
16

Afternoon in the Winegarden
Flitting from glass to glass
the sparrows drop brandy lime and soda
over old chairs.
Antique women hallucinate
between the rose stems,
their fingernails are thorns
their hands bracken
around wine-glasses.
2011) 17

Natalie
as I prepared to dive
from the Union Gallery
I saw her grin
choke on cafelato.
2011)
18

The Seed
Meditative, they dressed pearl-white
for the growth within;
spoke only gentle tones of eyes
to help a silent passenger.
2011)
19

At the Right Cinema at the Right Time
Faces are anti-mysteries,
you can touch a thousand
with one outstretched mind
glisten and pretend with them
you’re trendy
20

Oberaudorf
A sky full of mountains
stealing horizons,
in the valley
a tuft of cottages rivals the ants.
© Geoff Campbell (quotes
from "Words in Common"
21

Doing the Marathon
My balloon legs are really sticks of adrenalin
bursting, blowing, bursting,
how can I stand when I run?
22

Behind the Black Hills
Trees, icicles from sky
grew visibly, melted into warm night
as you drove a dirt road spiked
thru the heart of black hills
thorned
rigor mortised
drained of pastel.
2011)
23

What I Feel
the world and I are
indiscernible.
We tell each other
volumes without words,
beauty without cosmetics
and cannot feel separate
from eternal things.
Yet these pass
like adolescence.
We shall create miraculous orbs
with meridians of sunrise, sunset © Geoff Campbell (quotes from "Words in
24

Cemetery Scene
Peasants place stone angels
beside dear relatives’ flowers
buried in silver, their pride
lined with geranium and gold-leaf.
Uncle Rudolfo was a dangerous man,
relieved profoundly
from dimension of fear.
Temporal justice now
shades into ethereals.
25

Elementals
She flew above peaks
where fierce birds whooped
avalanche song
to a god at the summit.
Its aura knew
ten living valleys.
2011)
26

Canberra: Early morning
6am cracks sun on Mt Ainslie
draped in cloud
light sprays through trees
filtering in the day.

Currawongs duet and quartet
quirky song to-and-fro in the courtyard.
27

Suburban freeze - Canberra
Air is the defining solitude
gust and still, touch and
leave,
Black Mountain is itself
the hour is winter,
each minute survives to
another
the day forgets day
28

Floriade
She walks a footbridge knee-deep
in Floral River.
Ripples of breezed tulips waver on
to Nerang Pool.
Subtly, straight pastels build into
eddies of colour.
2011)
29

Swimming – St Kilda Beach
I walked in shallow waves past Luna Park
each lunchtime, fell into place, splashed
half raw in my Mark Spitz briefs
out into the brine, the sea weeded swill

to dive in the chill dark ripples of Port Phillip Bay,
30

Lake Scene
In mist over Albert Park
the lake silhouettes dead trees in saffron

haze of sky. The distant rain striates cloud
into Middle Park streets. Cars stop start

elasticised athletes stride
their bandy gallop.
31

Acland Street - Cake Suicide
Sugar dulls the mind with awe
at gods of marzipan in the window.
They glare back and wink

as windows clad in iced apple-blossom
find ways to flirt the tastebuds
and bring in hunters of pastry.
Ödrerir Press 2011) 32

St Kilda – Night
I used to think this Light glowed from a shroud
of winter mists extended to alleyways
where night-birds and night-owls try to hoot

in cigarette smoke.
2011) 33

Bittersweet, You Go to the
Depths of Me
Today the one and only Summer has come to my window
with deep breath smelling of trees
and her unique Love
like the butterflies jagged flight without care
forbids my heart rest.
2011)
34

Summer there is always still
us
& if I try to push you away
the us is still there
& if I pretend we never happened
the us will swamp me in tidal waves
35

Tonight
this season of such a simple yearning
women like her just don’t exist
they are cruel fantasies men die for
thinking they can hug the Skye and embrace stars.
2011)
36

Carlton Gardens Gone the emu hunt, still the
possums;
gone too the earliest
landowners.
Now a white palace shimmers
in Carlton Gardens.
…by fountains aimed at
a litany of Exhibitions
and lakes floral in gold
leaf.
© Geoff Campbell (quotes from "Words in Common" Ödrerir Press 2011) 37

The Peach Tree
Clad in grey abrasive bark, with golden sap strung out,
ten thousand leaves drape sensual magic
where I’d hang full-blown, cold, drenched with rain;
daring be cradled in lithe arms.
2011)
38

My Parents
From birth of a child, an idea beckons
and grows, that a man or a woman
may traverse the maze of years
to come out wiser.
That gain is strange, and may not
follow convention.
2011)
39

Being someone
the umpiring butt
of a nation, wilfully strode out on the MCG
and held the ball aloft, thinking of dad as the crowd stood.
Seventyfive thousand seconds later (one for each voice)
the siren sounded like hell and the fury began.
40

Night
drive
Must keep on, its only natural to be in traffic
at 4am. I’m slipping glances to legs slipped against me,
like oily breeze against citified oil of hoon;
outside, my arm hangs lewd impersonations, quite safe
under the circumstance.
2011)
41

The street
The day explains itself.
I can’t feel whether
its cold or hot.
Already summer stinks out of cobblestones
stained by feet. © Geoff Campbell (quotes from "Words in
42

Soup kitchen
At the “baby grand” a beard sings
soup-house blues in pub contralto.
A steady line of musical plates gets spooned.
A Turkish lady dishes to a man educated with scars.
2011)
43

Hard luck story
I know you look me
I love sleep wine bottle
I got got in street
I got bless in soup kitchen
I got more you got
2011)
44

Apparition
and her hair is the colour of a raven
and there are flowers printed on her dress
and her hair fine silk thread
when curled in my fingers
2011)
45

Dreampoem of a wife and nine cats
The covers unfurl, she turns
and petals turn. Fur stands on end.
A breeze scents the room
as I ponder aromas of
cats, violets, women.
Press 2011)
46

The war with ravioli
glaring as the mousetrap claps
my stomach opinionated
I reach to circumcise the can.
The mouse drags its harness from the cupboard
And I eat my ravioli.
2011)
47

Living space
I sleep in Hell. I know,
within bare walls trace ancestry
of tenants rarefied down till me.
Outside is light, no need
for faulty blind or claustrophobic curtain,
outside never sleeps at day.
2011)
48

Opening my eyes
I wipe cats off me
panic into the lounge
to halt ripping papers,
the wife says I’m a pet lover.
2011)
49

Preston
tech
pacifists kept their brains and came second
’cause kids measured and snapped rulers.
tough girls sprouted breasts like muscles
and manly arms expounding
truths of pubescent brutality.
the facts of life were lies then
2011)
50

Ash Wednesday
This afternoon dust clouds
blow in for a change, I dread
a huge shock-wave walls forward,
await towering cloud
the newscast, five minutes to God.
© Geoff Campbell
(quotes from "Words
in Common" Ödrerir
Press 2011)
51

Walking the dog
We are hangdog, stumbling;
and nearby many people with ties
are tugged along by similar leads;
trudging into more-than-friend ship,
all or nothing everlasting.
2011)
52

AFL Grand Final
The thousand marching girls
are dwarfed by a thundered Voice
rimming the arena in standing waves.
2011)
53

Spirit of Progress
Our eyes blink duller, slower, awake!
Hourly we take shifts to squirm
insomnia on the luggage rack.
Hourly the all night card game is collapsed
by stroppy guard or rackless leg
2011)
54

Hostel
Sunday church attended
for social reasons, reason for
prayer;
we’re lost but found and thank
the Shepherdess guiding,
wish her farewell
till same time, same reason.
2011)
55

The drunken boy
The human flagon of tears
drops by and wilts among dead leaves.
He has loved a dozen drinks away
with stunned silence
shown his mates how.
2011)
56

Marriage
Love, which has no rules, is given some.
Horror is the prospect of little feet
prying wide the vows.
In sacrament, a life temple is built
of truths beyond duality.
2011)
57

St Kilda Botanic Gardens
Poise is colour is scent is flair;
all of time one moment
in the galaxy of your mind.
A zillion roses, trimmed, geometric, in line.
© Geoff Campbell
(quotes from "Words in
Common" Ödrerir Press
2011)
58

Tramp’s song
hungover from botanical sleep;
how my wine breath perfumed the flowers!
after gates closed and guards shone
I played among possums
derelict games, close to starving,
2011)
59

Town Hall Square closure
Gulls mark concrete and skateboard somnambule
with inborn guile for attack
and retreat into rockery.
Roaring fountains and seagulls turn off at dusk.
60

One poem
Lost between mad
and sorry
U cry too much
impossibly curving
agonized kissable
writhes.
2011) 61

A second poem
. . . I may yield an’ say feelings true an crazed
find a dragon to kiss or a T-Rex to seduce
this Geo never whispers that danger-word Love. . .
2011)
62

Third poem blast you!
O stuff it then
just half a kiss
maybe another. . .
OK U name the number
just don’t
feel limited by the universe.
2011) 63

Good morning advice
Don’t be so beautiful I can’t stand it. . .
Don’t ask me to have a good nite its Summer vacuous
hence antitautologous.
Don’t make me feel better its never gonna be
OK © Geoff Campbell (quotes from "Words in
64

3 gens o’ PhDs don’t beat …
and U my genius ladyangel
who worked it out anyway
are just not telling coz of spiritual amnesia.
When U lose it the world won’t hide me.
2011)
65

To the gloom-beautiful Summer
U must be priceless each blink of God’s trillion eyes!
You win exotic fruits and teasing.
You can’t have it tho! HA! © Geoff Campbell (quotes from
2011) 66

Grow up!
Freedom to be an irrational explosion for her
totally a mere man for her
watch out Summer u an I will cause such a blam!
Even the H-bomb would be envious.
67

Front page: balancing the news
the next Test at Lord's, a great omen since our last victory
trade sanctions and money to halt executioners of thousands of dissidents
and the Aussies amassed a record 7 for 601
so to the back page.
2011)
68

Bali Bombing - October 12, 2002
Now the turning,
ponderous sleep
fades to apparitions,
of guys and girls on Kuta beach,
never quite seeing the Southern Cross
but a new star cluster on Indonesia.
"Words in Common" Ödrerir
Press 2011)
69

On the train…
Two girls and a dog
wriggle and sniff on a bong.
What randies they are!
I look out
the window stained with graffiti.
2011)
70

Taxi Driving
Night steals my fares
accumulating
my years of friends,
waving between wheels and bitumen
we’re all lost in syrupy black. © Geoff Campbell (quotes from "Words in

The complete book of poems are available at
http://www.bookstore.bookpod.com.au/p/1193208/words-in-common.html
Quotes from
Words in Common
Poems by
Geoff Campbell
(Melbourne Australia)
Launched February 2011 by Professor Kevin
Brophy (University of Melbourne);
edited by Professor Trevor Code;
photographs in the book, Elizabeth Gertsakis.

Poems by Geoff Campbell - WORDS IN COMMON

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