This was written for the October 30th 2012 “Equal Writes” session in Belgrave. I did both a poem and a prose piece explaining the background.

Silver the poem

Strong runner
Apprentice butcher
Goal set
Strive for the finish

Runs well
Edged out
Second place
A quick silver race

Stands tall
between two men
skins darker than his
but an agenda shared by all

Medals awarded
Gloved fists
In the air
He stands, badged with honour

Fastest Australian
Never again called
Seen to have shamed
By wanting all to stand tall

Peter Norman – Silver medalist – 1968 Olympics

In the 1968 Olympics in Mexico an apprentice butcher from Melbourne threw a cat amongst the pigeons in the 200m heats by breaking the world record, threatening the domination of the US. He took silver in the finals, improving his time again, separating Tommie Smith who won gold (and the then world record) and Jon Carlos who took bronze.

Before the ceremony Tommie and Jon told Peter about their plans to protest racial segregation and inequality with the gloved fist salute, and Peter Norman said “I’ll stand with you”.

On the way out to the podium he borrowed an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge from one of the US rowers and then, when Jon Carlos realised he’d forgotten his pair of gloves, suggested that they share Tommie’s.

That iconic act of defiance had an immediate impact, with the athletes being booed as they left the podium and then ostracised. The two US athletes were expelled from the Games and Peter Norman was reprimanded by the Australian Olympic Committee the day after the race.

Despite being ranked fifth in the world and running qualifying times in the 100m and the 200m before the next Olympics Peter Norman was not selected for the 1972 Munich games, and he later retired from competitive running.

There was no reconciliation, when the 2000 Sydney Olympics happened he was the only Australian olympian to not be invited to participate in the lap of honour, a grievous omission, dashing his hopes.

However, the American team had not forgotten him and he was invited to be their guest of honour, staying with them in the Olympic Village.

When Peter Norman died in 2006 both Tommie Smith and Jon Carlos came to Melbourne to be his pall bearers and to read eulogies, Tommie said “Peter Norman’s legacy is a rock. Stand on that rock.”

Peter Norman’s 1968 finals time is still the Australian 200m record. The day of his funeral is honoured as “Peter Norman Day” by the US Track and Field Federation.

Another in the series of writings for the Equal Writes writing group in Belgrave, this one was on the topic of Episodes and is vaguely (OK, more than vaguely) autobiographical.

Episodes in my life

Growing up in Cardiff

City streets, city parks,
Trips to the Brecon Beacons.
Roman roads, standing stones,
faint echoes of the Mabinogion.

Autumn holidays in Pembrokeshire
Where Parry Thomas and Babs broke records,
and one sorry day, full of cold,
Babs broke his life.

University in Aberystwyth

Wyt ti’n siarad Cymraeg?
Not really.
Welsh, but not speaking Welsh.
In this Welsh University town.
Trying to learn the lingo but blocked,
timetable clashes and moved lectures.
Physics and maths getting in the way.
Instead I found computers,
almost lost a degree,
but found a new occupation.

Working in Great Malvern

Running computers for developers,
in the place where RADAR was developed,
to see in the dark.

During a war where computers first came to life,
to break codes,
to see into the enemies mind.

Later, working in computer security,
to keep the black hats out,
and keep the white hats safe.
Our own hats a lighter shade of grey.

Migration to Australia

Just married to an Aussie,
in the middle of the UK.
Our honeymoon is down under,
living in Cockatoo,
and an introduction to wonder.
New birds, animals, and mosquitoes.

A year passes and another trip,
and this holiday a decision is made
to leave the old country and try
something new.

Both of us migrants now,
me for the first time,
her for the second,
both taking a big leap together,
catching each other,
at the end of the red eye.

Quite a while ago I said I was going to put up the writing I was doing for the “Equal Writes” group at the Belgrave Library. Er, well I forgot. 🙂 So here’s the one after the last one I blogged, and I’ve now got a backlog to get through. 🙂

The word for this one was just “snake”, so I tried a short poem with some prose as a follow up about snakes.

Snakes are an odd creature
Lacking ears they cannot hear as we do
But bodies sensitive to movement detect our steps
Perfunctory, unworried, receding
Oblivious to its presence hidden in the grass

Snakes are reptiles that have been around in for one form or another for around 100 million years. Their evolution is unclear with two main theories, one being that they evolved from digging reptiles that benefited from gaining the scales over the eyes and from losing their ears – the other that they arose from a group of aquatic reptiles called mosasaurs which evolved into creatures resembling modern day sea snakes. Whilst it used to be that the mososaur theory was better supported by discoveries new DNA evidence does not show a close relationship of snakes to monitor lizards (known to be descended from mosasaurs) and the discovery of a fully land-living fossil (Najash, a name derived from the Hebrew name for the serpent in Genesis) complete with rear limbs seems to have turned the tables for now.

They are a very successful creature with species occuring on all continents, except Antartica, and range in size from the tiny threadsnakes which can be barely 10cm long to the massive constrictors such as the reticulated python and the anaconda. The largest snakes that ever lived are now extinct though, with Titanoboa currently holding the crown at around 12m-15m long (and also likely the heaviest so far).

Whilst all snakes are obligated carnivores (they can only derive some nutrients they need from meat) most species are not venomous, relying on either ambushing their prey and killing with constriction or simply eat it whole (which can be relatively easy if your prey are eggs, not known for their running skills). Of ourse being able to tear your prey up has its downsides, you must swallow it whole so they have evolved very complex jaw arrangements to allow them to consume prey larger than the diameter of their head. They don’t dislocate their jaws though, that is very much a myth.

As snakes occur pretty much anywhere humans normally live they have woven their way into our cultures. Egyptians used the image of an Egyptian cobra as the Uraeus, a symbol of royal power and of the goddess Wadjet, most recognisable on the gold mask of Tutankhamun. Serpents make many appearances in the Bible and that follows through into Christian mythology with St Patrick winning renown for casting the snakes out of Ireland (whereas snakes had never colonised it in the first place) as well as the “snake stones” of Whitby Abbey. According to legend St Hilda wanted to build an abbey at Whitby but was frustrated by the sheer number of snakes occupying the area. She prayed and they were all turned to stone, allowing her to build the abbey. After that time people kept finding stones shaped like coiled snakes, but without heads, which was apparently the result of a beheading curse from St Cuthbert. A roaring trade in these relics sprang up with some enterprising craftsmen thoughtfully providing the heads they had lost by carving them into the stone. Ironically what was being found there were not the unlucky snakes but the remains of much older animals, ammonites, the fossil remains of extinct molluscs which gave rise to the present day nautilus. There is now one species of ammonite named after St Hilda, “Hildoceras”.

When Whitby’s nuns exalting told,
Of thousand snakes, each one
Was changed into a coil of stone,
When Holy Hilda pray’d:
Themselves, without their holy ground,
Their stony folds had often found.

– Sir Walter Scott – “Marmion”