About polliepomes

This is not primarily a ‘blogging’ site, though new comments are welcome. It’s just somewhere to store copies of my ‘stuff’ which so far consists mainly of ‘pomes’ or political satire published in the print media or posted on other blogs. Most of the first two hundred, entered here over three days in mid-March, 2011, were written from January, 2010, to late February, 2011, and are tagged with the original site details and date of publication. Now that they are collated in order those tags may later help me develop a brief narrative as background to each item.

The past few years, especially the last eighteen months, has been an extraordinary period in Australian political life. As a feminist with a concern for the environment and social justice I was often drawn to comment at Larvatus Prodeo, a group blog which discusses these and other issues from a left of centre perspective. In January, 2010, I was attracted to their ‘In The Loop’ competition for satirical verse and found I had a hidden talent for this amusing way of exposing the follies and foibles of politicians. Expressing indignation and rage about parliamentarians in straight prose can be very wearing. Lampooning them in verse, I found, is far more satisfying and enjoyably creative.

I haven’t stopped writing my ‘polliepomes’ since then, ridiculing the antics of the ‘right’ in general and Tony Abbott in particular. In the middle of 2010 Cafe Whispers invited me to contribute articles and ‘pomes’ to their blog. I’ve enjoyed doing that because I’ve been able get back to the sort of writing I once started to learn as an aspiring journalist over fifty years ago. That was before my ‘real’ life took over, i.e. the one considered more appropriate for a young woman of that time. The media has changed dramatically since then, and in my view generally for the worse. I find the wry and witty comments of Mr. Denham at The Failed Esate enlightening about the reasons for this.

Other favorite sites where I browse and comment are Grog’s Gamut and North Coast Voices. I have a special affection for The Political Sword where LYN’S DAILY LINKS make sure I start the day au courant with Australian political commentary.

I have been so often asked where more of my ‘pomes’ can be read that a collection at a site like this seems to answer that need. On the other hand I have a strong belief that satire should sit alongside or near the news items and events which first inspired it, just as cartoons do. From now on I will record new ‘pomes’ here as they happen, along with comments from their original sites. I still plan, however, to compose and enjoy them in situ, as it were, as part of the buzz and debate out there in the blogosphere. Collecting is nowhere near as much fun as a lively conversation!

This Blog is archived by the National Library of Australia’s PANDORA program

Comments

Lyn,     28/03/11     Hi Patricia! Congratulations on your beautiful website, Polliepomes. Brilliant work, very enjoyable, a credit to the blogosphere

Patricia WA, 29/03/11 Thank you, Lyn. As I wrote to you at The Political Sword I am not seeking to use ‘polliepomes’ as a site for ‘blogging and commentary’ as such. Creating it simply seemed the best way to collate in one spot the ‘pomes’ and comments from the various locations which first excited me to write my views in verse in the first place. Now I can refer here all those lovely people like yourself who ask me if they can read more of my stuff. I can also collect the encouraging messages I get from readers on other sites too. So far I haven’t had any critical ones but I’m open to receiving those too, either here or at the original point of publication.

sean dwyer, (ewe2), 21/02/12, Hi Patricia, bravo on the blog. I really enjoyed our LOOP competition, and I’m glad you’ve kept up with it in these less enjoyable political times. I will draw inspiration for my own doggerel from your continuing work!

13/02/2013 Unabridged notes for The Political Sword, to accompany my latest pome after six weeks of limited writing caused by a broken wrist! I plan to edit this soon.

“Hello Lyn, Ad Astra, TT and all other Swordsters! I’m fully restored and my hand was liberated yesterday from its nasty heavy white casing. So I celebrated with this pome and post at polliepomes.wordpress.com/…/ – and then rushed here to post it like old times and found I couldn’t! But miraculously Lyn’s Links made it through this morning’s technical difficulties and life was restored to old times again in that sense at least.

But I knew that life wasn’t ever going to be the same in another sense, and I’ve known that for quite a while, particularly during the last of these six weeks of limited use of my left hand. Now I know MWS and AA both advised me to type and use it as much as possible, but somehow a deeper part of me decided to take advantage of this alibi for more limited writing activity.

At first I used it as an excuse for my writer’s block over several weeks and then discovered that I had been given an opportunity to change pace and do things differently. I’ve continued coming here and to my other favorite sites like the Cafe to read every day and I have commented occasionally and written a bit, but it really did hurt! I heeded AA, and then my specialist who agreed with him, about movement but I did different kinds of exercises for my hand while out walking or even while watching telly with Tacker. So without the writing I had time to focus not just on reading beloved blogs but I got back in to more private notes. Posting about politics and the unexpected success with the pomes had consumed so much energy and time and now I realized that several years had passed since I’d opened up some files. Suddenly I became aware that it’s possible to reach an advanced age with much unfinished business lying to hand and perhaps little time left in which to complete it.

So now that I can write easily again I have decided to focus on that private stuff. While staying in touch with you all through reading your articles and comments I will only work on pomes and posts which refuse not to be written. Maybe as the election approaches there will be more and more urgency there. Who knows? Nasking has changed – lovely to see him here from time to time again. Talk Turkey has changed his focus too and branched out to wider and more effective publication on Twitter for example, but I’m going more private for a while. The electronic stuff is all beyond me anyway, so having Lyn and others disperse my stuff around the blogosphere has been great and will be much appreciated until the day I can focus on learning texting and the like for myself! As well I think Lyn and all of you would agree, as Miglo does too that Truth Seeker has recently been doing a great job of posting satirical verse around here. I’m sure there’ll be days that TT and I and others come out and try to compete or joust with him but he’s very impressive, isn’t he?

It’s lovely to be able to write pain free even if I’m not back in the same old way. If I say little please be assured I am not just lurking occasionally.

Cutting Horses For Sale In Texas,    26/05/13,    I don’t know if it’s just me or if everybody else experiencing issues with your site. It appears as if some of the text on your content are running off the screen. Can somebody else please provide feedback and let me know if this is happening to them too? This may be a problem with my internet browser because I’ve had this happen previously. Thanks

Patriciawa,    26/05/13,     Thanks for your visit and comment.  No one else has mentioned this as a problem to me,  and when I read here the the word adjustment to line seems fine since I’m not looking for block format.  By the way I did try to visit your own site and found myself at a Greek language formatted site, although main text is in English,  and unable to find a spot to comment and reply to your query.   So I hope you get to read this!  Good luck!

Terese,     25/06/13,     Wow that was unusual. I just wrote an incredibly long comment
but after I clicked submit my comment didn’t appear. Grrrr… well I’m not writing all that over
again. Anyways, just wanted to say fantastic blog.

Patriciawa,    25/06/13,   Sorrry, Terese, there are some very unpleasant people out there, so I approve comments before publishing.   I’ll see if I can recover those other things you said too.