over there / over here

Such a poor showing in only posting once in 2008, I'm caught somewhere between embarrassment and apathy. It's 2009 and the more things change, the more they appear to stay the same - except things have changed in a very real way (and what is the distinction between "real" and "very real"? Does the former have some kind of ethereal quality to it, milliseconds before Captain Kirk et al are fully transported?).

We've moved 13,000 miles across the face of the earth. So far away in fact, that were we to travel much further we would start to move closer to home again. Well I think that's right, and it's an oft-quoted fact to family and friends when discussing our emigration to New Zealand. It sounds good in any case, and I will confirm it via Google when I can be bothered.

More importantly I've decided to correctly use capitalisation when writing - lower-casing for the sake of it is so 20th century and was a by-product of the discovery of email co-inciding with the need to save the planet's resources. All those extra key-presses saved when typing, all that unused ink as followers everywhere print out my poetry in 128pt point text ready to adorn the wall of their shared student residence. Plus the fact that I'm 40 this year and it all seems a bit childish now.

Side-stepping the newly embraced spirit of change, I present the first poem that I ever had published (and referred to 1 post and 6+ months ago).

I Realise

I think it was,
(though I'm not quite sure),
I saw it alone
Standing in this place.

I realised
It wasn't me,
(The wind swept wild
In this barren place).

My tree
Threadbare with sincerity,
That lead
My moistened eyes to shine

Begat a tale
Of woe for me
When I realised
It's life was mine.

January 1998