'Tinfish' & blue swayed shoes

http://www.tinfishpress.com/

Tinfish always has interesting content (I haven't seen them all, but the ones I've seen) but the philosophy behind the covers is a constant delight to me. They are done by a group of artists in Hawaii and are made from recycled items - cereal boxes, tarpaper, maps, etc. Each one is a work of art in itself.

They always remind me of an occasion when I was being a pretentious producer of a 'young poets' reading' for the Festival of Perth many decades ago. I suggested they (the y'poets) bring something that influenced them to our next rehearsal - meaning a text by another poet. Greg Osborn, very young at the time but wittier than old-man Andrew, brought along the Coco-Pops packet he had eaten breakfast from that morning :-)

Greg died in a carcrash down south aged forty. A great waste. In memoriam I post a poem by Greg, first published in Sandgropers, published 1973, edited by Dorothy Hewett.

blue swayed shoes

stoned to de bones
got no blues
stoned to de bones
got no blues
got no blues
got no shoes

got a smilin head
that can amuse
me n you
if we move
me n you in a trippin groove
buzzin here
buzzin dere
buzzin into de crazy air
tryn to fuse
tryn to fuse
wid a pair
o blue swayed shoes

stoned to de bones
got no blues
stoned to de bones
got some shoes

cos i
found some dere
up in de air
in de blue hue dere
a pair
a pair
a freakin pair
o dem blue swayed shoes

an i
thenk y sky
for bein dere
up in de air
when i was dere
an when i wasn't


Greg Osborn