Those most assailed trees
that go with rack and torn barbed wire
for don’t we stack
such dog season stuff
always under a macrocarpa.
Always the roughest corner of
the farm, someone has worked his anger off
hacking at trees
so that like crabs
their pincers cut
They claw the northwest gales.
in macrocarpas there is no delight,
only the blown fleece
on a broken fence
magpies scatter
across the plough; scarfed
and splintered when words were not enough
the revving saw
and the axe
do for them now.
Michael Jackson (b.1940)
The macrocarpa is a big tree common on farms in NZ for shelter and to break the wind. This one is just down the road from our place down a little farm track alongside which houses a little place which has dozens of hens, geese, ducks, turkeys all running around a muddy yard! The smell was awful!
Three good things:
1. Started pruning the roses.
2.The camera batteries died but I had charged the new ones.
3.Looking for a new GPS with Lifetime maps.
I enjoyed this poem, and here are three things I thought:
1. What is a macrocarpa? (I googled it..so now I know.)
2. I think I could "find delight" in the macrocarpas! With a macro lens, you can find delight in almost any old thing! Really!
3. The MJ that wrote this, in 1940, had no clue his name was going to be forever changed for many people in the world. Sadly, I really cannot hear the name, without hearing a high pitched squeal and seeing a "moon walk" move in my head. Ugh.
I also googled macrocarpa & it seems a very useful tree for shelter & it's wood...your poem goes beautifully with this rather wild corner of a farm. Trying to see through the gate ..are there some trailers parked or am I seeing things?
Lovely to see you doing TGTs!
this looks vintage; very nice processing. always happy to learn something new, and on 365 one doesn't just learn one thing on a given day, try learning so many things! thank you for sharing.
I like how you've processed this shot- it looks cinematic (which I think the effect is) as if it's a shot from some sweeping epic movie like Out of Africa or something. Sorry about the smell, but the shot is great!
1. What is a macrocarpa? (I googled it..so now I know.)
2. I think I could "find delight" in the macrocarpas! With a macro lens, you can find delight in almost any old thing! Really!
3. The MJ that wrote this, in 1940, had no clue his name was going to be forever changed for many people in the world. Sadly, I really cannot hear the name, without hearing a high pitched squeal and seeing a "moon walk" move in my head. Ugh.
Glad you had some charged batteries!!! Can you update your GPS maps?
Lovely to see you doing TGTs!