PASSION UP A PAW PAW TREE — A Swills & Swoon Romance — ‘Ring – ring’ Timothy’s phone rent the cool, morning, sub-tropical air with mechanical insistence “Hellooo.” A voice as smooth as serpentine caressed his ear. “Goldie here, remember? You quoted on my verandah renovations; the price is right, and you seem to have […]
BLOCK: G5 Language
The Australian Word: The Short Story
THE SHORT AND THE SMALL Some uncharitable observers state that the short story is an inferior form of literature – a ‘mall’ story in fact! – designed for those with the attention span of a sparrow. Not so; in its most sublime manifestation, the genre stands as high as any prose form. The life of […]
The Australian Word: Student Writing Sample
FLAMER This is a modern Australian tale collectively created by my students in a term-long teacher-education course on Storywriting I conducted in 1980. Most of the students became, in time, talented story-creators in their own right. This story may happen anywhere, any time, it may have happened already. Somewhere in the center of this vast […]
Into Calm: A Play for 5th Graders
DAFFODIL AND VIOLET The Play, Daffodil and Violet, was written by me (with help from my wife Susan) and performed by my Class 6 in 1978. The content was woven from several strands of the science stream, including the senses, geography, botany and even some incipient astronomy. For example, not the sequence of plant evolution […]
Grammatike-Grammatikos: The Dictionary
Dictionary n. Latin Dictum, to speak Dictionary – Class 5 – Middle Lesson “What do you think about that group of Class 5 children visiting The Library tomorrow?” The question was general, so any of the tomes in the Reference Books section of the vast, dark and empty (of people at least) public library could […]
Grammatike-Grammatikos: Eloquence in Language
THUS SPAKE CALLIOPE Eloquence – Class 5 – Middle Lesson It was a Sunday afternoon as I sat in my study staring at the sheet of blank paper on my desk. It stared back, it’s white emptiness hostile rather than virginal. So I deflowered it by writing ‘Class 5 Middle Lesson – Sun – Feeling’ […]