My Poems

Posts that contain my poems

The Breaking of the Drought

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there is a certain feeling to the day
that something will happen

the air massing with no colour to the sky
sifting itself inside out in turmoil
but the cloud disperses
dissipating expectation

the sun is quick to return
stretches headstrong to the horizon
hard pressing its flat horror
the stunted scrub squeeze-dried

bent over double in submission
the ghost wrap of the winter crop
rattles its dead prayers to the wind
his harvester idle for the season

the long wait begins again
that endless wait for change
day after day of disciplined ritual
waiting for a break in the heavens

and in the tomorrow that never came
at dawn in the patched shadow
with the sky groping to contain itself
he walked to the back shed

a sudden, sharp crack-echo
the air shocked still,
and it is over –

too soon the family will find
and then the endless cry

Richard Scutter 11 November 2007

This poem was published in ‘Voices from the Valley’ the 2012 anthology of stories and verse by the Yass Valley Writers – 2012. It was written at the peak of the drought.

Guidance from Above

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Guidance from above

Strapped to my wrist, button pressed
jogging, walking or at rest
every step is measured with precision
on how I’ve run without derision.
The heavens track from out in space
where, how fast, my time and pace.
My watch reports without a flaw,
but perhaps, dear God, you can do more!
I don’t mean to be a little rude
but I would like so much to improve.
Could you give instructions to the letter
on what steps to take so I do better?
Now I’m not asking for heaven from you
just a few seconds from my PB will do.

Richard Scutter 15 December 2012

Published in the ACT Veterans Athletics Vetrunner – February 2013

Footnote …

Perhaps you already have a satelite watch. I bought a ‘Garmin’ version in the middle of last year – nothing fancy but I’m impressed with all the watch can do to give information on every walk, run or cycle (not that I currently use it for cycling).

Some-time after my initial purchase I discovered an amazing feature. At that stage I had quite a few runs recorded in the watch history, and some in England while overseas. When I connected the watch to the ‘Garmin Connect’ section of their Website I realised I could store all my watch history on their site against my name but extra detail was available on transfer. This included 1 km splits on every run, my average moving pace as distinct from my average pace – the time spent ‘stopped’ was also recorded, and elevation loss and gain throughout the run and much of this data can be downloaded to a spreadsheet.

The one feature that really impressed me was the trace-map of my run also viewable from a satellite perspective. This showed me the route taken of some UK runs that I had completely forgotten. Coupled to this feature is the ability to re-run the run using the player feature – an icon will follow the exact route taken and at any stage this can be stopped to see time/distance/pace/elevation. It doesn’t end there. All this information can be made public to the Garmin Sport community. You can access all the courses and people that share their runs in this way – a world-wide depository which can be viewed at leisure on your computer.

Of course it is always wonderful to run without a watch and enjoy getting out and moving air without any thought of time!