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Journal from a hike to the Gardens & back

 

Journal from a hike to the Gardens & back

 

The following was written at the conclusion of a walk from my home to the Castlemaine Botanical Gardens & round the gardens’ loop. A distance of some 9 kilometres. I have become fat after my marriage breakup & the death of my father, the end of my teaching days involving a flare with my psychiatric condition. Blah blah. Anyway, it’s Spring! & it’s delightful to walk, following on from some of my literary heroes who walked a great deal – walking also promotes a fecundity of mind. The following was written in sequence upon returning hot, sweaty & liberated; & concluded with drinking 150 ml of Japanese vodka, which combined with the endorphin hit of the walk has left me happily fallow for a moment. & so I am typing up what was hand written. Hack work.

I write after the greatest Haiku poet Matsuo Basho, who trekked in rice sandals thousands of kilometres through often mountainous regions in the 17th Century, promoted by his Zen-like wish to become a “weather exposed skeleton.”

I write haiku, tanka & prose (poetry sometimes).

 

--

 

Here we begin

In order

The conclusion

 

--

 

How long

After each stage

Of his epic treks

Did Basho wait

To compose his haiku?

 

--

 

Gangsta walk

Chafe

Bloody toes –

Electrified

 

--

 

At that very moment

The men from the

Nearby prison

Raised their voices

In a war-like chant

Over the scape

 

--

 

Blood chilling cry

What a brutalizing process!

Steel bars

To a once child

 

--

 

Next door to me, two small children were playing under the supervision of their mother, oblivious to the cries of the men just down the road.

 

--

 

Children raising

Their voices

With their mother

 

--

 

What is tone?

How/why does it affect us?

 

--

 

P.A. announces LOCK DOWN

At H.M.S. Lodden

 

--

 

Feelings are rarely

One thing

 

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Having loved each of the school students I taught in my former profession, I well know that some of these children by now have already, or will serve time in prison. As a recent teacher disillusioned with the institution, I am well aware of how important early intervention for a child on a certain trajectory with someone with whom they have rapport with is. Teachers spend roughly 1000 hours with each of their students in the course of a year, however, policies are such that experienced & educated elders are forbidden to make those key REACH OUTS to identified children. Generally, these children are victims of family &/or social conditions, psychological factors, & a gutless education shitstem leaves key personal learning too late when the maladjusted now adult runs into ‘The big boys from the law’ or indeed organized crime. The cost is terrible. Often spanning generations.

 

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If only I had’ve been able

To have a coke

A game of pool

& a straight talk

With ya xx

 

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Haikus fail damaged people –

Too simple

 

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Published & Copyright Malachi Doyle 2024.

 

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