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: ALL GRADES: Writing
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: Australian Poetry
SEVEN SPIRITS OF THE SOUTH – 19thCentury Australian Poetry His riding boots made heavy going across the sand, the death-white winter spume of the Southern Ocean, Rider of the White Whale, dashed its spite harmlessly at his feet like a leashed terrier. Death-white also was his face; despair veiled the wild Spirit in his eyes […]
The Australian Word: Poetry and History
A PAINTED SHIP James Cook: So what have you got down already? Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Not much really, Part 1 Begins with a kind of introduction that’s all. You told me the voyage was an initiation into the mysteries of the Southern Ether; so I have planned seven parts – seven is a pretty good […]
The Australian Word: Words & Poetry & Speech
KNOCKING DOWN WALLS ———— WITH WORDS———– The Archangel Michael stared resolutely ahead, his features set with divine commitment. He did not look at the dragon writhing under his foot – he did not acknowledge its power. The spear of ‘Mikhail’, in the beautiful Russian icon, impaled the adversary to the earth – or was […]
I am Because I Write, Speak and Read: Speech and Poetry in 11th Grade
MY FAIR TEENAGERS Speech & Poetry – Main Lesson – Class 11 When the ancient Cypriot sculptor, Pygmalion, crafted a statue of a lovely maid, he was so entranced by his creation that he beseeched the gods to make her come alive. Aphrodite, soft-hearted goddess of amour (and Regent of Adolescence), obliged. Galatea stepped from […]