I’m In Awe Of A Beautiful Floor

I’m in awe Of a beautiful floor   I esteem The Olympic Team   I’d revere A long cold beer   But I grump When I think of Trump

Intensive Care Is For The Birds

Preface: Written in 1972, as an intern, after a particularly difficult week in ICU. I was twenty-four years old, sitting in our tiny apartment, unable to speak to my wife. Background: This ICU was at St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne, run by the wonderful Sisters of Mercy. The Sisters instilled a discipline of personal care at […]

I’ll Go Your Way Too

What is love? Millions of words written. But only two people in love really understand. The Romans got it pretty right. The bride whispered her love vow to the groom: ‘As you are Gaius, I am Gaia’. They were then as one. Fast forward about 2000 years. Leonard Cohen has often written about love, in […]

There Is No Difference Between The Johnnies And The Mehmets

Historians can parse wars and write papers, but it’s the poetry and prose of the time that captures the emotions. And the humanism. And the tears. That is why there will never be ‘compassion fatigue’ about Anzac Day. I bring three beautiful human moments to your attention. Mustafa Kemal, later known as Ataturk, was commander […]

Well Then, Give Me Your Pain

I’m not sure that anyone reads Lou Salome, or about Lou Salome, anymore. The peripatetic Russian psychoanalyst and feminist, born in 1861, was linked to famous men of her age, including Ree, Nietzsche, Wagner, Freud and Rilke, among others. In fact, there was a menage of sorts with the first two, the Poet and the […]

Ginsberg Will Howl The Recipe For Heaven

“But in the Wine-presses the human grapes sing not nor dance: They howl and writhe in shoals of torment, in fierce flames consuming, In chains of iron and in dungeons circled with ceaseless fires, In pits and dens and shades of death, in shapes of torment and woe” William Blake wrote as though he experienced […]

We Need Few Words To Express The Essential

Polonius would have been right at home on Twitter. “Brevity is the soul of wit” he  advises King Claudius and his Queen Gertrude, following up with “…I will be brief. Your noble son is mad” Whoa. Your noble son is mad. He only needs 21 characters and spits in Twitter’s eye because he has said […]