L AND MASS
being a dialectical imagistic history of the continent
mislabelled ‘Australia’ from dreaming to suburbanism
as told by the author, and taking country as a focus, in
particular the plants, minerals, animals and features of
the land as read by him in a number of sources be they
poetic, anthropological, historical, popular, scientific,
and intended as a resource for rethinking the good life
L AND MASS
R D WOOD
THE S PRESS
2016
First published in Australia by The S Press in 2016
P O Box 47
Witchcliffe
Western Australia 6286
Copyright © R D Wood 2016
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose
of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the
Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without
written permission.
Enquiries should be made to the publisher.
Cover design by Anne-Marie Reeves
Typeset in 11 point Bembo by Lasertype
Printed in Australia by McPherson’s Printing Group
Published by The S Press
The paper in this book is FSC certified. FSC promotes
environmentally responsible, socially beneficial and economically viable
management of the world’s forests.
for my teachers
OCHREPIT
Urhome, unhome
way thro
heart everyway, stop
heart, the everyway
name of turtle, name
run-bird talks two-two, skin,
young fish spear along glutinous,
country fish swimming along
fire run along, black goanna black
no whip and awl, own it
bonefish and bullroarer
cash-bomb of truth, bartered
spent against elkamore
3
grub in tree-rub, hit
brush sand brush
dog find it
finger-nail, rock
wallaby, euro, tail
mallee country, big belly
sweet-stick
spider-web
brother to a large blue morning bird
credit where debit’s dew
billabong
silver-quick
curlew ripped
vista dreams wet by surface tensions, this
4
quartz stones, bones and
spirit-snake in bodies
incision inside, heal
unmarked, a serpent
a sign equals to mind
sky-ghost and spirit, dwell
sky-hero crystal
red-ochred corpse
quartz-stones, bones and
pierce, fly marban
and back again
pearl-shell and wood by name
hairbelt
birdlike-familiar
company-un, but with nonetheless, and
5
wing-stunned
become tall for the place of making
strong-eyed
spirit-dog
blossom, she-oak she-oak
oh, he-black cockatoo and two,
gorge on spirit-name
flower of blue gum, bustling about
break off and hive
male ghost-move in distaste
shining
starling
fish, and black goanna black
calf disorientated
golden
stinking
6
glans sideways
talk two-two
foreskin and balm
foam and spray-burst
banana hidden
in pubic hair
town REDUP listen
sea-lock
and look-see
a desert pea
pearl-shell
fire run along long
fire stop,
red like burning
dawn,
red like heart
flown here
7
red like hollow
lying scent at dog mouth
hovering in the air
a bluff
a jagged edge
a spirit-dog cloud
yonder longing
a ti-tree circle
the hut
the hail for rain
and lightning-flashed land
and sun-hurled land
lame flowers cling
rock quivers, sing
the deep pit overflowing with width
a bandicoot
8
milk bush
and the dawn flecked painted ground
crimson soil under heel
white creek sand under heel
rich yellow soil
plain saltlake
impenetrable, hollow
swampflat
fur and claw
anthills
mounds and mounds of
bloodwood
white quartz
hollow trunk
limbs – firm, hard & strong
the hairstring ornaments reaching to the ground
9
covered with rings and stripes
on a belly
in mallee country,
knobbly nose
squashed nose
sore-covered nose
and meat
rip off
tear off
lacerate
the young
the old
the various
bold mountain forehead is glowing
the greying sky sends forth
its light spears
10
saltbush stalks
vigorous feathers
sky-soar, messengers
miners, hark
hurry along
bush-bursting
soft soil
carpet snake
wedgebill
rubble
rockplate
thicket
penis
scattered
watched intent
ascension rocks
11
tongues [of a flood]
locks
ghost gum
prickle-clump
tangled timber
and
standing-in, a raw
spout forth
deep as
pour down
wander over the land,
dustcloud,
storm-storm
rapid swell
and dune recession,
12
dark shadow
towering
spinning
air-bonds
like ice
the pool
biting
in saltbush
gale, wander
roar fury
survey
dense cane-grass
icy-chill
heat-wave
middle-ground
commemorative
13
stand-it up
leave-it
and
go
commemorate
big belly
mallee country
glutinous fish
black, goanna black
bandicoot,
one hand claps
paint-marks track
sticks striking
striking strangers
hit it
hit rock
14
wallaby (with club)
blue morning bird
iteating
cook to brothers both
his (woman) fire
making big tree
sing-song dance
dry sand
lightning and
wagtail
bone tired
aunt and uncle
and pop
stone
with claws
with claws
15
for young inside
for fish on rock
for desert lines
for darkcloud ship
for rain,
for two eyes
for voice
for walkalong
for spinifex
for stony hill,
for dune
and shoal
and spear
and river
for climb up hill
16
here stand
thicket thickest
stripe spattered
cliff
south wind
cut,
lie,
wound,
djunna.
17
CROWNLAND
Om,
exalt
praise-claim, mourn
confess that songlist barrier great
lode-recession, triple A
iron-gated
thousand-gated; stormed
tiger, lion, wolf, bear, worm, moth, gnat, mozzie
heaven, earth, wind, air, water, fire, men, gods
cattle, birds, herbs, trees, beasts, ants, moon
grammar, ritual, math, astrology, logic, star, sky
rice, barley, austerity, faith, truth, continence, law
dust-stemmed
clay flamed
a buttress of intake
21
pitch tent
brake idols
boast round and bath down
soil sand and crow is
crawl-granite, infernal and devoid
gully-fly
ragged hat and piled
summer’s haggard call
trumping all
beer-squash
clarion-fiend and coolant green
verdant, verjuice
vincotto burnt
realism’s dusty track
a subcrocdilian vitality
22
dust bat; war call
gate lame; grey-beard
gun thud, every cape and head
brain scrub is everywhere
the other way round
dell growl and bough-makred
blue horizon dips battery
prove it lost that day
last of may-carved
oh indivisible mangrove
great wide solemnitude
born of lone-hearts
out there
23
ratty hooted least
mean hook hoodlum
drum pray bang peace
khiddish,
snow-show
let it go
bake-bourke-glare
prayer-there
be hell neglected
blue-wife, or child, or widow too
changed dim
past a sudden
let us sing
lonely thousands
24
far and white and feeble
blue-doze and giro
drought, a hint
high ridge and crease-chain
horned, an abattoir
grass stark red
creek, fruit tree
and fun, steak
live morale
bait-baked
and poor run
big flood
lagoon and dam risen to
destroy us
groyn-sound
shamrock and chess
25
ground vanished
weed-edged
black sovereigns and spoons
transposed occultism
tomato season, red, now
what is waste
what is space
what is land
yellow bricked moustaches
salmon felt, and uncleaned houses
radishes lockable
washdays brick school
seed-time plant bound
clay pigeons squeezed
dazed
staled
26
iron-butter
foal and mite-struck
rain-on dust
cornhusk
red-faced
seeds to spit
bareness, dryland
campfire
whip-high
metal-shyng
scored beds
knotwood forests
croak oak
remembered and replanted
here a lagoon
crawling to sandstone harbours
27
range kilned
dry-eyed
baked
cutting sleeper and
multi-coloured flagpoles
lap detention
rental on country
mayflowering, aromatic, gentrified
high on country
church
halfcaste breeders
boats and buttocks
red-brown mooning
bashed
dustcoat damburst
28
whip leather
calf lolled
spoke wheel
to husbandry of
bred
rumble illegality
blade ride, show-clicked
thumbnail
dog, bitch, this
cash and cut
sap-ling straight
steel chairs, saw over brick
waiting for which
unprosperous
the walls
the escarpments
29
the seacoast
the jaw
the storm-rains
the logs
the steep
the hieghts
the fire-killed
the scaes
the ruins
the froth
the smoke
the fire
the ancient
the paradise
the great
30
the earth, the open, the word
the chainsaw
the torrents
the unuttered
the moon-shot
the column
the earth
the daystar
the heat
the point, the spiralling, the world, the sky
the updraft
the act
the wealthy
the poor
the great, the horizon
the taut
the mass
the apple-bough
31
the great
the cesspools, the irrational, the humour, the grace
the world
the farthest
the serious
the limitless
the dignity
the drystick
the waste
the stones
the sun
the unknown, the trees, the tracks, the streams
the paradise
waits with grind-gold
relaxes after joint-nail
sly charm apologies
32
date on cake
say ‘nowhere’
roof contracts
off planks,
windstorms came
wallplate-verandah-bat
afresh the day
that never came
shame in houses
nursed by twelve-gauge
stone name
quartz-clay
knoll-fast
a mirror under twigs
basalt, tall light
bare-tapped
33
candlelight
sleep rabbit transplants
moonrise white white white
ancient dying down
clearing and walking
to blue green
pink hot
strolling past
the fires of
the bagmen
shadow kisses
bridge scraps,
hole buckets
of semi-trailers
mortality times glaze
starved into celibacy
34
baker-night
bird the
rose
no hot water-notes
broke,
the points
right
yelling
right
every time
fire
buttocks, wives, eyes
eat fresh
eat cigarettes
gamble knives
lives, flies, criess
35
orange soil
big and wide
green never seen
dry-eye/fire
blue-gas
light flung
lights on
red glaze, of age
porcelain
cricket song
black glass, &
yellow juice
noon
roam-spoon
la-goon
36
fair, and tall, and slender
brighter
plump, and dark, and barking
brochial descension
spuff inflame
snap-chatter
sweet, richer
pain
quarter roar
sodden made
one thousand miles
league on league
clouds of summer
drought owner
seventeen track
verandahs
37
cool and thin and strike and snake
sway under away
unison
façade
charmed, arranged
mildew rule, no
knowing rumours breath
heat-besotted rebellion
mere summaries
sway, grow, pupil
damp throat rattle
lust itch, burn for breath
dart
are, you wind-lashed palm
38
esplanade and strange disordering wind
calloping waves
eternity leaches
sealers dine like lords
on mutton birds,
blight daughters
brisk waters
surely, purely
she-oak
cunjevoi
lemon juice
wattle blossom
tumbledown
ears of wheat
yellow light late
triumphant illusions
reborn golden
39
back kitchen
mullet thick
stroked forty
gallon risen
the after-dark fog
ember thick
full of mulberry leaves, silkworms, cocoons
transparency
see laughter
splinter
flower
number
this the imprint of the last, chalk-moth
ground parrot
bee-eater
elder goshawk
40
spinifex boned by flame
the final page –
huntsman
finches
paperbark
riverbank
soft-stepped
corps
give-awayed
boxes
midwest
mall
and
stone-systems
nowhere entered
fastidious grovellment
41
fondly imagined,
a photograph
empty
migrained
locked
boot axed
collapsed
suffering
ice-pink
ridge
green
whichever
sheet-mean
no-thing
decay
blown-out
crack skull
42
hut difficult
plain, and
distant
bayonetting
evening,
innocence
gift traffic
thick mist
experience,
figment
ruin
slip
drink
blue haze eucalypts,
an hour passes
a berth-self
a twice-photographed
43
edge,
unlucky slipped
pallid
receded
blended
galloped
a blue flash
a deviant rank
trash prank
ice-wished
as though snow comforts,
elegant
pastel
bright spoke
wheel
canteen and index
reheard as chatter
44
realised as summer ;
the bowl sky
the sea breeze
the smog
the day
the evening
the lights
the nitrous oxides,
the heat
the lungs
the working classes,
the new
the baking
the outback,
the way
the on-shore breezes
on top form a plain
45
affection
edifice at twenty score
accurate
to a father
forge on
surrender,
honour
the profit motive
rancour
homage
rabble
tardy
obscure
resolute
neck-wrung
ghost-wait
46
ruck and forge
grey sludge, fade away
DYNAMITE
radiation storm
monster, and
black lagoon
mutilated
across the face
scarp
skin
brutal, extravagant
horror, peasant
iron-voiced
unforgiven and arrogant
as darkness was
as fissures
as string-firing
striking
47
there burns,
dust scuffed
powerlinediscarded
scarified
intoxicant
allergic
eaten
spilled
silo, stung and bitten
putrefaction
dust
corrosion
herbicidal
pestilence hanging
fugitive
taste-peated
underarmic
48
wet with moonlight
tender-flesh
lonely, underneath
raw
sinned
bobbing
cleared
salt-stone earth
thumbscrews and hunger
blue-scrub and crystal
rose and curses
run with doom
across the remains,
a great rapacious eye
in the anatomical
false-between, in
frozen-core
49
in heavy water
exposure
cipher and sign
over white banks
menace
gauges
superphosphorous, colourants
over barbeques
powerboats
vascular suburbs
peripheral, shin-high
hexed
unfleshment
caveats of emperors
paradies of life
iron shelters
and glass
50
poachers and blood
rails and gone
back again
remains
family names
bad seasons,
washed away
it’s all settlers
and cottage
industries,
sold up
broken up
underwritten, surfaces.
51
BREADFIELD
Home
again sickness, in
health,
glow worm prefrost of,
in hell
in de-pastured
inclined gateful and walking,
of when-stop sparkle
and how-shot, dank
and why-light on
the path
by the mirror of longing
55
sin ) see pewter
by cloud-break
by hull
by sugarloaf, east
through knowing
and chat-bait-snap
and hole net rolling
pin )chance by wheel
domicile NASDAQ
56
of wagon & egg
arrived at nowness
bullneck windfall
of special thursday
chaser and marrow
crepuscular, shallow
loafstyle of circle
leatherwing dale,
no kingfisher
no ladder
no youravine ( but
lobsterclay ( fetid angina
( split conquerence
( pea sound
otherwise of abalone, all-a-velveteen
57
knee, fenugreek, vacuum
clavicle tamarind jellyroll
ventricle
solder
slather participle
the chimed wind
on islands in
the hope archipelago
the commensurate
erasure of
the
the
the
the
ra
contiki
tour here
trip made
over the hollow of your desiring
58
mind-limb
of remotestedge
brought back to script
institute
by tootle-toot
re-formed
by brittle-bat
a game of happenstance
precise-chance
left open as
( turmeric glaze
wormz
earls kit
herser
polars, freda freda freda
hesk zesk morf elder pesk
controlled
59
let go
lemon goat
kern-o
kernel
kennel,
shadow
shade low
raid-o
rattle,
reload
and wonder if
and wonder when
the possibilityof possibility
returns again;
again sing
multitudinous-multiplicitous-multifarious-nefarious60
notorious, could have ruled the world
spell game end, parole
sour broody shake
rate-one (sane-ark
self-cater NASA
big jizz Icarus
dism gums vulnerable k-resh
evee bye prizm
leaker nosh sahft
premo just-panda, draft
elio spin parm, hems obey
paks moron beth
borts
PORK
WLS
61
sem germs fresh, FBS
clem
jones, igloo clusker yay prish
brokenwood swerve, ready 2 go
lamb pank items bob, hershel
yoki p-munee, whizz
big jizz, Icarus
gums PRK mary fridge
big rig, pig mats
york roast, mr. nosto
parla mint
sealed in telligestational best friendness,
oh street, A street
alive with
62
benign in
–>
by the by ) effacement
pavement
word on the street
reassignment durian cargo
chuckit meld, bridge yield, tributaries
of musk
back to
home, soft
pre-frost
cold-all-about
kaat
taa
peep
marr
chow
queetnoodlebull
remonstrate by packable, come oddity
63
come overly and back again.
Home memory
prawn ochre
rust cocoa,
coaled over
sunk in the wetlands
fragments
and microbeads
mandarins
of bizarre, road silk, tar fighter
toasted nutella
and unitary millers
cross gables, arcangles
on landthis
64
no country, for
a seagull or a sparrow
a wave or a mirror
a fir or a pine
a beast or stone
mist or diamond
pig or coal
crackling fire of was
and by, by then
and was
isthmus of history
temptation’s dome, silo of fire
island of mirth, remoteness of ohm, reflection gong
luxuriate in unconception, pragmatic oedible
op-so-beet grappled and thawn
dogwater / rip / loam red / grand / quart
65
oh country,
for
an eagle and cockatoo
a shale and a reflection
a marri and paw
a roo and ruin
bore and cloud
lightning man junba of
whant and since, of
since then
isle skin, fragment sky
unknown nature, dress
remembered suit city
testimony to the between inness
hoof golden
66
brocaded
argonautical agrospacial
dear beautiful,
white belly
motorbike
grandfather
burrowing
shovel,
unadorned, as if metric
interstitial, open palmed
waxing
spasmodic, noted damed
arched fallen, damoclesian
in
67
buttercup field
and, snowy clouds
and, blueberry ash
and, sugar beat
naked city,
stoneboard of
rocky hideaway
and, pink dolly
on pirouette and jenny spinning, on dasher
on rajs and tajs
and rajapaksas and laksmi
on huxtables and lingonberries
on canvas nighthawks,
sewn-flown-thrown in
baby waters and loam
loom the field
68
turn over the strip, skirt, stake, kilt gilt
by make mark,
mach one, from ande to
amazon
machete,
humble-bug iridescent from aping
hungry in the middle of knowing
no land worth turfing
passed agog
supplicant effervescent
roaring grrl riot
writing
ripping
tubing-en
tightening-spent
the circulatory effects of the systems, economic
69
glass nickel
red change
a seal
a swan
a suit
bed green, round thing
mustard hurt coal sore silk soap
the shape of ribbon
copper melody
why idle;
why spark (
a plate,
small a,
a string
70
cause, a
a church is blue
green light lime, by wayside
amber drive,
wedge-cover swell rent of
jack, knife
chop-hoddle-top key mine, quicksilver
salt time
better shine and moon sign
co of a clammy
wet pine
norfolk grover grocer ) request
and washing; line
groper coupon-lute,
your hypercapital experience
71
( tear gins, milk djinns careless in help jungles
ants, of sanity wisteriaful
and chance devils
by the middle of the air
burden beasts the burdock blood of back before
too long
you dance-prayer, cheetah skin,
you dart
you geyser
avuncular comely and navel
arranged in quiltessence
dishevelled in crevasse
flower-weed
72
sprinkle-dashed
mulla, vada mulla
jamanthi, jamanthipoo
mathangappoo
chemperathi, chemperati
aambal, amachi now
you are touched
taj, clay
lacquer your body
fur, clot
stag-air not
pipe-reed fail
disowned dissension
cat-a-lol-clysm
73
terns returned
rainbow galloped, cumulus spread
budgie mirage
flute tone, flame now, shade more
resurrected egret,
quick heart shark
cobbled intaglio
ejaculative brio
quail devoured plumage shimmered storm wandered
ironwood steelwool facile missile
thorn-crown of diamond pressure
of burnt rye of barrel oak
top job hill of
sequoia spruce eucalypt and
grey nurse
74
conserve preserve, zoo jam radial
silk apple hearticulated by
frontears
red à burning
red dawn burning
red hollow, whirlwind pole
dog mouth naked
over low over
milkbush
maiden fleck
bore-grass
belt of protection over
cradle gauze and bush hill, over
quilt drape and stale, crocodile
tomatillo
75
eye recess quietness lie
eye green she-oak mile
and,
everything’s turning to white
dwindle hills, reptile
skull knobs
the bluehorsemanes
the redstockroads; golden tears, briars
hold soilplace ash
dwell time
rouse-gun and crack sun tongue
drained thigh high & licht
prostrate pro-state, supplicant
slivers of almondine wetness
76
marzipanal, scoffing areola, quaffing pubis
mons solar
proliferant profligate, flagellated for satdiurnal
pleasures
micro beads and wristies
topknot twists and Cheetos
stand alone, warble and jacuzzi
rounded
your atom wind, moralia squirted
minima lifted
baji smuggled and orion
seen
hurl em,
village wrest
light bud, light-caw
pie of mag, nag stead
77
round yonder earth heaven
stop dash stop
before home
pigs on pigeon puddling and york
shire scandal and loop-de-loop
afterward
sherry mamma pacha
outpoured
hello
cock shuttle
and re-lowed
felled by sprawl
and loaf,
meat
78
egg-sweat
heaven-hoed
dug from sprout
loathed
by pie and hawk
crow and bomber
power and lion
giant and swan
pig with gryphon
and peaked at red
steamed, rollen, chiven
and selfish
a showboat for the ghoulish
wish champed
79
grey weight and pile plank
mudbank
glide, derelict wire
white-ant vine
grow salt-white, coleus light
swampland crowblack
azure congested
horn bone, boundless plain
ramshackle goldhands and
passionate menagerie
where you sit smorgasboarding
acorn adder ash
bluebell beech buttercup
catkin conker cygnet
dandelion
hazel heather heron
80
ivy lark mistletoe
nectar newt nectarine
otter pasture willow
not ‘here’, no
patria a mortadella
liver tea, eagle tea, frat party
and the serpent in its claws
twisting, twistie, twisted
flavourerd chicken hopscotched of job botulism
freedom and probiotica
might as bourgeois
cracked fox as salamied
saffron pampas
buffalo and wing
ruminant
81
flamboyant degritude, degraded ecumensis, meniscus of
slap
snap and
albacore, alpine for, her
a wine trip and
tracker taken, a
river secret and stolen
made
wheretofore a launch
a shrub
commodity at polish, a berth
to sailaway
across dune waves and
penny
bringing sheep,
enter
this dreaming
82
periodontal
cave of hallowed too sisterly
plateau
water, beetle bug ohm
totem
flour loam
twofold a
dissonance
citadel of stake
metropolitants, queen denmine
erred ermine, precautionary &
inserted
pink nails, an article of smack
black wall
black reef
hollow of black
wound-meme, a traumascarp MINE
83
upside down father
regeneratepayer
lease-lend-lard pizzazz
no-one, not you
owns country
rainbow circumscribed, disettled
figmentary ( a leaf to cover you
your cutoff
noland
not stolen
work it out
then feast
again, aperitif ) of minion
dandruff ranging, a variegated lesion
of goldleaf
84
ramen river, rum and rivet yolkbloom
therapeutic ringing
malatested
alho
blanzac
crower
danki
ermellinata
tamaru
spice spoon, splic sue, sow me
boarding
flower piscine :
murchison gascoigne
fitzroy,
kimberley, murray
wayne
85
swan darling, torenns and charles
rapid as mach marl
fall angel, name-mourning
go two by two by four
aboard and doffed
wetlanded ) homeland ( ohmniscient
outboard
relegated to amazoning redeveloped
tree limed, fingered, custard and pie-kn
kowtow to wading and
morasses of molasses
maple sequestered equestrian sequoia
refined :
shrewsbury
leceister eustace boniface not
untie
86
cheeditha cambellin APY and possum
magic clifford, red-dogging green
a Caesar of inland reefs
mind wandering
footstep milkdud milkweed
milkthumb, tom
moss-cushion, knot-spear and herring sheen
an upright coffin, eastward
yew-geese, a warble seasonal wheeling
and breath of sheep
scene
thickening down slopes
red berry sinuous indigone
base pit now into
hoar frosts
87
at the edges, lichen
limnal limestone reformatted and mottled
hooded plover only a stroll
ripe pelt and arum gut
clog choke
break out of wax
Geraldtonian hybrid
seen
unfolding the undulant beach
origamic
primary
taught by green chance
integral, verdant, alluvial
88
photosynthetic phosphorescent of rose
orthogonal
dialiminal,
and blue
a harpsichord of grain
inviolate
articulated by bricks –
mortar pestle basilica cloth of camel needling
its way to
merry fervent
a happening,
home
a bifold
a twin, vermicelli
- similitude
89
salt perch and smoke hawk
eagle derry and lumber shed, cherry orchid
shear, wasp, cheek, stroke and wing
ox of bold, blade jack-beak, bikini
atolled
peripheral like ink
no campion
pimpernel
honeysuckle
ghost-crab
fingerling,
but
skink
wren robin, wagtail & gull
wandoo peppy & jam
wheat stubble
sheep pad, windmill
90
oh fractal blue tuna
oh bauxite
oh
shrike finch kite
bluebush saltbush face of pig
lucerne peat
no, bag of days
fog through
rubble of spelt
champing for dime turned pumpernickel
rumped & stilton skin
ranch dressed
loosed by oration
pack-weed and chilled
lax
91
turl, turf and tax
noxious, odious and mach
wan, dreamy, overlain
stirpot OJ
reubensian voluptuary
of trunk, early and sand
elephantine memorial
akimbo aslant
use to land
gnomic
hut boots, fax
telegraph, seeger, pavlovian
sonic
provolone
pneumonic
92
form of plague ark cantaloupe
tharnda
birrabirra
jigurra
marrimarri
marnduwarra
jadurnmarra
wajuwarra
and sky jinji
a red cloud
coalesced
my heart, a lonely hunter
dog scar
scratch, parry
sing loud
a lonely wheel
93
crenalated béchamel
daubed with fleck-sought grey
quail
caging jointed butterflied colandric
glacier
galaxy pace and munched
black:
pearl, lightning
buck bear
ripen, salmon
rapidcedar
ring of lune ) and saturnalian lament
the train
the steam
the iron
the horse
94
peel of sunburn
through the supplication of
bricklaid arms
musket mosaic
a front a crip a blood
spilled upon the comforter
spoor
wake not morning
vouchsafes coupons stamps
the rubber
necked, storme-beaten
ewe-moor
inchoate outlife, thugged
daisy mews praise singed by louse
oh absence, twine maistre
melancholic oppressment - chlorine
saltrock
95
gaseous libel
mortal war
impanelled impala tame
campari
dry gingered allied
oh ale
famine foliage, bounty bud, totter thriftless tillage
ore-snow’d
self-wilde
score-minded furrow
of candlestick soil
star plucked judgement
oh sullied night of unset gardens
reed learning, vaporisms, glory’s remoulade, glazed pocket,
not
incarnadine with goldleaf and guilt gone troppo
altar
96
daggered awake by vulgarity, acidification
algal bloomsday
my hero a leaf, sugary, sow external
wrinkle manacle inch thick rye
ruin ruminant, stout pea and jewel, tungsten tide
turned round by gouda
rose-trout and bankrupt
holy flower and robbing
commend and crowd, common ground
hallowed by defect and fair
praise masked the sullen bell
fat worm flock
nothing
black dew
nourish-wound
97
knife retch & glutton pine
lie sleep-dog, profit grave and sterile decadence
sawsie bark
he of tall building, decay and lye
clam baked praise, infeebled mire
ghost
scalpel sorrow,
fortunes woe horse and hawk, be wretched
vex recoils fester
porridge, weevil, meal-worm,
wolf-report of dull cheer
not here, not here
moon eclipse of olive rib, jarrah, cave, navel, glib
return to forms of warden
98
grind ox, adder deformed
sublated traction
ironing babe creep
bronze, banana, poison, dog-trap
oblation bare knuckle, fear esteem
give fingers, plattered johned
garter slander
gander bosom engrossed
gross
root pity, angel fire
drake blind, defect warrantises
hole
flamingoed their way out of
punch rock
golden circle
99
thrift log
hop and yeast and hog and beast
cadmium
cyan
nearly tide
serpent-lock and nest of haggard
ant-buddha, a bead post
a box drum
a match fan
a stick of zap
gas-tight
soul-loaf now, of resurrected perfume
distil echo, ripple whisper, buzz
supple as acreage
surge of sweet elaboration
crag
100
haul idle, hum vulva
our sunset
elderhand and elderflower, and little-well
stoneway cuff and lapis lazuli
hint-sprout, adjunct manifold
onward & outward nothing collapses
tentacle, and littered
oaten and slow drawn
green intertinged
chowder twig, keg
fireboat best
sharphoofed flatfooted maw mawing tongue carpentered
pate, wolverine, wax and shawl
cornrow uniform
gazetted, broken, regaled and in-stormed
101
slumberous black swan
high snow (a dream)
lake-seed, iron-bird, white-foam
collateral
interlope, hawk, prairie knot
cloud-foot wary
oh stone feet
silken, snug coast
rococoa
distributed, swallows
wise-grinning, urchin
thigh
hillside, dune
tyre
linger, goat-horn
ectoplasmic metamorphosis
102
cuntdom, moonage
home
oh disembowelled stratum
arc-lamp
fern-bed
turgescent-flag
tar sand
arch to knee
mower, rummage, puppet
achar, avail, crocket
field of joypocket
suede, duende, die-a-little
watermelon tonnage and seedspot
dribble, cockadoodle
heart of joy
country ripe & old
petticoat painted by light
103
lisp old, croak tenderling,
heavy hill beckon me
honest and sullen, but not cold
skeleton lily, speech deep-white-deep
white horsemanes
adjustment
edged denialwhite
judgement
chop harvest; poppy granular
gambler of ghee
forced by makar, malabar
my key, my blue eye
pie of balat
this ability
to combine
to seed-plant
to new-clear react
104
going solo
fusion chairs
chamois floss
oh slow burn
dead dog
lazarussian
gawking and pudding
bone-dense
mindfuckful
oh axe-wound
heartstorming
medal detector
ated, badge of courage
echo-cide
side with gnat king
not coal
105
colour bones:
ochre
magenta
puce
tinfoil
hundred thousand isle
oh sandstorm,
magnanimous
pride swallowed
wild of beast, of prayer
kneel at sunset
kneel at holler
kneel at lobster
vortexical, coasting
pierogi, wind-rose & poppy
106
chrysanthemother and carrot-cake-father
nine whitely breathing ironstone hills
infant cobble soil
and bloodvein
seam rich, a kitchen tableu
lay sea
inland, pencil
whorl and calyx
curtain funeral, bream pill
amethyst side to side
flotsam rupture
honey-grief turner
red-beak, burnished sheen
blunt-headed pine fruit
corrosive
sharky
107
lime naked and jexed
peon smoke barrelled, concealed denial spawned
cross & full
momentum’s milk snatch
q-tip pomegranate
dusky, cyclical
sapphire
grey
hounded leg bone and doze defunct
rye
uprooted custard
faundry and reed-dom
romanesco and xeno
a placard
oh litany, of
rainbow conglomerate
108
white-throated pigeon
red-crowed parakeet
white gallinule
MAPLE
white-chested white-eye robust-white-eye
white-fotted rabbit rat
blue-grey mouse
white-bellied frog
red-finned blue-eye
fire coral, fire
and ash, park ash easing into and
smouldering
smitten
in love with death again, do-what
and doo-wop
whopper and blop
a spill, a slip
109
love-bite, resurrect
genetic, jurassic
world of munster; cheese-string-theory of
abated pestilence
hope dear friends, totems
hope
rope-a-dope shed
pomelo, oh a story,
bless
fizzical, a mammoth
an age, a marmot
a north face
listicle tested
whim
oh eden
oh milkpeach, lucky danube
oh silversteen mangobeat
110
& vigorous
oh fall non-autumnal
orthogonal, paedics, may
faerybot –
what
strikes one as knowing,
lightning, junba
penis breast wanjina
sumosa, relativity strain at keep
kelp east-eel
sun-moth
good-dogging
oh ash, loam me a vowel
ash volcanic, tree trunk, reedflex and able
bleach sable, non,
run
with hope, a promise
111
note bygone
urgent contact – reneged
scouted
funtrial
( smile like dust
you diamond gal
on context’s horizon, a yak
stray, path, gaze-less, gaze-a-grass
constraint a-vagabonding
glossing
nudes, bears, lions, sows
raw-flame, flock-grove
slow-trout and unshaven horse
tiny bridges & pieces of eight
a navel babe
112
a pig, a blanket, your etch
oh edge
oh to the brinkof
come, (anchor of gram groan-weight
chance, mettle and breach
a helmet sprouting blame beards
oh brim, sea fire
full to the loss
fool of the quartz
dream and quarters
settled once more
a pain, a melody, a caper
a five-stroke breath
halitosis and aesthetics
habit of mule
persistent as a baby expressed by milch
113
expelled; exiled from the queendom of habit
a nun, a soy, a lentil, a malbec
gentile from way back
pagan as cider, mood: apple isle
my sight: cross-hair
my back, a broken hand
my mead your nettled work
oh naivety how to miss thee:
persist pushon retract retrace forgive
geton with it
be-chamomiled
a vanilla scented candelabra
bath awhile
relaximus
ferret
loom and roewhip
114
whale song
home, oh home
no more kangaroo
gunya, galah
dolorous ticker, parishioner
dingo pup
feather tuft
what yabba-yabba is up
give up
throat cut, by butterfly
eight sixths of pod, flock, an extra
form of ordinary, a canson
a tint
a mane of chow
a mien of champagne
oh suet faucet, oh love
115
oh smoke lip and day drops
oh green lip and spotlight
oh me, oh my
crankshaft and grasp dutty
natty and butty
a chipoff
rotared &lesion, spelt
tomorrow’s sow and leviathan’s despair
sung mint
epiglottal abyss
debasement decode encamp encipherment
casuarina spear
depth wattle sea
charge of brace
suspended antimonies.
116
AFTERWORD
There is a vast body of poetry and poetics on land. From the
pastoral to the idyll to the eulogy, it could be said to be one of
the definitive and dominant themes of the art. There are poems
about love; there are poems about death; but land, as that placething, has been a foremost concern for poets working with and in
‘Australia’. This includes those who compose traditional verse from
gunangu to songlines, those who recite bush ballads, slam champs
competing for props, and the literary bureaucratic establishment.
Land is central to who we are as people. It is fundamental to all
our forms of life.
Any land word-game needs to pay attention to the perspicacity
of experience and the historical density of existing discourses.
LAND MASS references events and texts, high(s) and low(s),
local and metropolitan, English and not, held together by an
assembled poetic voice. This is as much a ‘mass’, as it is a map.
Perhaps it will show the way to somewhere, even if that is simply
a getting-lost place.
R D Wood
NB: This book is not for sale. It exists as a gift removed from the monetary economy.