An Attempt to Get Oats Into this Poem
By Luke Beesley
Published 19 October 2023
It was no reflection on my fondness for you, the throwing of the sour milk.
The sound of the silver bucket spread out like a town at the beginning of a
Kurosawa. The milk was hula. The day: ultra marine. You stepped in the mood.
Do you still follow bees? I found four in a tea pot ...
On the cover of your book is an open locket and within it your relatives?
Cousins? Their faces are small but I can recognise your eyes. With what
poems will you describe them this Christmas? Christmas like the name Tony
Tuckson. I guess I see spilled paint across the canvas like a pulled muscle.
We could get a towel, or sit in the sun? There's a bus! And our reflection in it,
turning. It was my thought today that as poets we should eat good breakfasts.
You? Oats, sliced pear, pepitas, other seeds, natural yogurt.
Melbourne poet Luke Beesley travelled to Coffs Harbour to work with the students of Bishop Druitt College on the Toilet Doors project, a resource developed by Red Room Poetry that explores guerrilla poetry. As part of the workshop experience, Luke also composed a poem for the school, 'An Attempt to Get Oats Into this Poem'.
Students created new works of poetry through activities including 'blackout poems', where they remixed an existing text, and the 'stars through a sieve' exercise, which asked them to consider what would happen if they were to attempt to force the firmament through a colander.