Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Double dactyls and nonsense poetry





Several months before I came to Chennai (also called Madras) the Melbourne Poets Union put out a call for a double dactyl competition. I put this poem in and won the comp. Last week I visited the world headquarters of the Theosophical Society here in Chennai with its collection of ancient manuscripts and gardens full of ancient banyan trees. You feel like you are walking through a jungle of elephant legs. I went to Blavatsky Bungalow and it was like an architectural version of the banyan groves, all verandahs and pillars. I took a photo of Helena and so I felt it was time for this little poem to come out of hiding.


Double dactyl dp140
Horsical snorsical
Helena Blavatsky
Anthroposophistic
Secret meetings

Held in Madras gardens
Her words in old Greek code
Hippotologistic:
Our steeds fleeting

4 comments:

  1. I like the way the tree is photographed. Shows its magnificence!

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  2. the way the words dance on the page
    the way the trees reflect from the bottom
    magnificent - poem, jungle of elephant legs, and banyan trees.

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