Poems by Willem Tibben
midsummer night's breeze
your entry is cool silent
brings a moment of forever
leaves me whole blown memories
come caress this body
kiss its skin extremes
you are the softest lover
From Near Myths published 1986
becoming a nomad #2
(from a series of 4)
i am going to live with the natives
i will strip myself of all encumbrance
and go into the wilderness
i hereby renounce all my decrepit culture
and in its place announce myself a noble savage
who is both in and of the elemental world
i confess for years i've been a ghost
existentializing in the body of a clerk
but from this moment on i choose to be
will i be tough enough will i survive?
gosh i know that it will be no picnic
but isn't that the point exactly?
so all that's left to do is choose my tribe
i'll study National Geographic then i'll decide
from The Conscious Moment published 1995
has also been published in Ten Years Live,
Live Poets Society, 2001
arthorse
..
done in rude ochre teeth
screaming at hunter hordes
sensing the coming massacre
of domestication
this classic alexander on steed
dolloped with pigeonshit
a million milling americans
in dirtymarbled venice
neither horse nor woman sweats
a pale halo softens the edges
of their eighteenth century
dainty haughty splendor
lolloping thru paddocks
of tree-stumping victoria
horse's nomenclature extends
to hunting imported foxes
teeth weird again
biting out "horse"
screaming at hordes
brute guernica
posted on OZpoet Freeform page March 2002
published in a previous version in Fling! - 1984 - as "a short note on the evolution of horse")
but and
the pause in their voice
begins its excuse
of a life
speechless with
but
and
his brain
is a clenched fist
wanting
but
unable to
her hand lifts
from the cold window
where fingerprints
fill with streetlights
and the heat of
their either / or
rubs between them
her fore-arm shifts
flexes with his throat
tick tick
she turns
goes.
winner: Passing Show Poetry Competition
Macquarie University, 1986
david's funeral
the congregation emerges
its ragegrief shifting splintering
to family and friends
knotting about the fountain
with its mercury/classic/affect
clink of flag-rope a bellsound -
what did they sing? I don't know
a late-arrival I was outside
their silence is ending-focused
she moves to leave
the gravel drive
crunches under her shoes
the crowd closes follows
her brave hat
posted on poetic inspirations message board, March 2002
doing time
spend time
save time
take time
give time
share time
keep time
lose time
make up time
before time
after time
in time
out of time
all the time
doing time
leaves/hear
(after "parce mihi domine"
by jan garbarek and the hilliard ensemble… )
from under
ten centuries of singing
a voice surfaces, mine
and for the first time in an age
i'm listening, hearing it
like empty pages
zephyr strewn along the grass
or the surfsound of a billion leaves
whispering my life
Artwork: Nocturne in Black and
Gold by James Whistler
Music: Enya
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Bio
Willem (Bill) Tibben was born in Holland 21.04.1947. He migrated to
Australia in 1954 and grew up on dairy farms in the Camden district, 75 k or so from Sydney
centre, New South Wales,Australia. His work life was spent in various parts of the New South Wales Public Service- much of it in Health, much of it in Training and Development.
He has had two marriages ,13 years and 16 years respectively, the second going strong,
and four kids (ages 28, 24, 14, and 12)
Bill studied part-time at the university between 1973 and 1987, including one
fulltime year,, eventually finishing three degrees (BS.Social Science, Masters Sociology, BA Literature and Philosophy.
He started writing in 1967.To quote Bill, ' ...after doing it in my head for a couple of years.
I had dreamed of being the new Bob Dylan, and did eventually learn to strum a bit on guitar but never finished any songs'.
Bill first submitted poems to the student Newspaper Neucleus UNE (University of New England) in 1977
which were all published. He then published in some small magazines but never the major ones
until he won a competition in 1986, got onto ABC Radio (Poet's Tongue" in 1984),
and then published his first book, Near Myths, via Kardoorair , a small press
with links to UNE , in 1986.
He gave up on trying to get published but a long term association with several writing/Reading groups kept
him going in the ensuing years and reading aloud in public , a great test for many poems of this period.
Bill self published his second book ,The Conscious Moment , in 1995 and
is working towards a third collection possibly due out in 2004.
Another quote from Bill: "My core style is freeform .I do believe that there is one best expression of form and content for any given poem
and the task is to find it. Ironically my 'most famous' poem is three six line stanzas with an a b c c b /a rhyming structure ("did
Bill Shakespeare have to wash the dishes?") published in the Oxford Illustrated Treasury of Australian Humour -
1988 I have been invigorated and inspired by my recent forays into
epoety".
.