Tuesday Poem: Now What?

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A good question
here in the living room
at quarter to three.
All the others
are in bed.
They’re drawn in pairs
& yet again we’ve drawn the bye.
Have a coffee – Thanks.
What’s on the telly? Static.
A penny for your thoughts;
I’ve wrung the last
thin juices out of mine.
Have another orange, go on,
be a devil.
Stuff a chilli up your nose,
see a doctor, read a book,
save the world in fifteen minutes.
Put on your hat & coat & gloves
then take them off again.

Credit note: First published in Men Briefly Explained (IP, 2011). Mary Cresswell gave Men Briefly Explained an excellent review in issue 75 of Takahe, and this is one of the poems she quoted in her review.

Tim says: There have rumblings – rumblings which are entirely justified – about the continuing lack of new Tuesday Poems from me. My only defence is that I’m not actually writing poetry at the moment – I’m writing short stories. But I may have to break the habit of a lifetime and put unpublished poetry up here before long. Poetry editors all around the world will weep at the loss of the cherished first rights to publish my beautiful poems… (Cups ear, listens for sounds of weeping. None heard.)

But no matter! This week, I thought it was fully worth posting another poem from Men Briefly Explained, given Mary’s excellent review. This is the oldest poem in the book, written when I was single and lived in Dunedin. It didn’t make it into my first collection, Boat People, but it fitted nicely into Men Briefly Explained.

The Tuesday Poem: You can check out all the Tuesday Poems at the Tuesday Poem blog – the hub poem in the centre, and the other Tuesday Poets’ work linked from the left.

You can buy books by Tim Jones online!

9 thoughts on “Tuesday Poem: Now What?”

  2. Rumblings will continue until runs (or lines, to be more accurate) are on the board. This is a very funny (and slightly sad) poem. I always wondered what the less popular did with their evenings, so it is most interesting from an anthropological point of view. (-:

  3. Nice work, and fantastic review. But now that men are quite completely explained you want to throw your poems to the world unchaperoned – I too would have misgivings about such such a move if I was in your shoes. As it is – all I can say is good luck with the short stories – I look forward to reading them.

  5. Thanks, Janis, Penelope, AJ and Helen!Janis – If there's a \”Mr Talented Man of Words\” calendar in prospect in about five years' time, I am willing to start work on my abs now.Penelope – I do try to shine a light into corners of the human psyche that would otherwise remain dark, cobwebbed, and dusty for those more fortunate and socially ept than I.AJ – I actually have ideas for two more collections of poetry, completely different in tone. I have written one poem for one of them, and none for the other.Helen – thanks! You wait ages for one review, and then two buses come along together.

  6. Good to see your work Tim. I really enjoyed the snippets in the review perhaps you could blog the whole poems …the one about harbours eg.

  8. Thanks Tim.:-)It's lovely. does one say that about a man poem? A surprise ending but very gentle and redolent of harbours. There's nothing like them is there. when I stop travelling I will get the book!

  9. Thanks, Helen. You are most welcome to call any or all of my poems \”lovely\” – I'm not very macho, and I won't mind ;-)Enjoy the rest of your travels!

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