Reflections on Byron Bay
Rumbo etondo, graditzo
I’m coming and leaving
beaches bombora and flow
oombompa will cut you
and married… you know
They smoke marijuana
undwaa and collect
the dole and live by the sea
Surf plumes and clouds roll
drizzling rain…
are sushi and didgeridoos
white limos and kombies catcheryfree?
A man in a three cornered hat
on the edge of a
cliff drinking beer
ratsawna karish kadish
and his bride lay away, lay away
Commercialist populist
exploiting indigenous
the monied, the lepers, mediums too
backpackers, backpackers all.
1 February 2009
Comments
oh Estelle! this is completely awesome! I love the words, the feel of this………it took me straight to the ocean’s edge and I could feel warm breezes. Fantastic!!!!
Thanks Shilo…I am so happy you were able to get the feel of it…xx
– Estelle O'Brien
It’s really too bad I can’t understand part of some words you’ve written Estelle….it leaves me for more !
Hi Corinne, thanks for reading my poem. Some of the words are not translatable except in your imagination- because they are made up sounds of impressions I had no words for. I simply let my brain feel what it wanted to without the barrier of language. It was an exercise in allowing my right brain to have freedom of expression without the censorship or logic of my logical left brain. I had learned to do it with drawing and was interested to see what would happen with writing. I had just spent 3 days with my sister from Canada after not seeing her for some years, and was on my way home from dropping her off in Brisbane, so I was in a heightened emotional state when we stopped in Byron for lunch. So you may put your own interpretation on the words! Bisous xx
– Estelle O'Brien
This is cool – I would have never thought to push the right brain with words, but the rhythm and sounds work together to make art!
Thanks so much for reading Lora…it was an interesting experiment (though I see it didn’t excite very much attention!! lol) It’s fun to try to find new ways to be creative.
– Estelle O'Brien
Very interesting to know all that…i will read it again and let my imagination go then, without my left brain bothering me…..thanks so much for all those infos and take good care of you….
Apart from that, I perfectly understand your state of mind with your sister gone away…..’twas the same for me, as Colo was in France last week and is now back to OZ….such a heartbreak !
this is such an interesting read Estelle, i love your use of words real & the ones left for the imagination to decipher… i’ve always wanted to go to Byron, thank you for giving me a glimpse of it…. hope all is good with you… love & hugs B.
thanks b…it is not an easy poem to just flick an eye over! I am good..but exhausted- have moved and still unpacking…will bmail you later. lots of love to you xx
– Estelle O'Brien
perfect shades of Byron !! Oh it’s just like that ! everytime we drive though I wish I could take a movie camera with me,,, and have you been into the boonies? [boondocks] as my daughter calles the hills [Mullumbimby] …I used to supply a lot of boutiques with tee shirts,in Byron only for the classy people LOL and did the market once ! hahaha once! fun though…used to be lots of money to be made in the eighties.
thanks gini- I dont write much poetry any more…but this just wrote itself – even the made-up words – after a call in to Byron. We often stop there for lunch on our way to Brissie. Yes we drove out to M’bimby a few months ago…hadn’t been there since my hippy days in the 70s…it all looks respectable and middle class now!… lol…..
– Estelle O'Brien