Clive Palmer, once a larger figure on the Australian landscape, has been on a crash diet in his post-politics period, dropping 30 kilograms or so, which sent him dreaming and, yes, writing some pretty out-there poetry about food.
It's earning him viral status on social media, and now it's launched him into the world of electronic pop.
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Clive Palmer: surreal poet
Social media turns surreal as former Fairfax MP Clive Palmer posts poems, memes, dogs and musings to the delight and bemusement of fans and supporters.
This week has seen him drooling over a Tim Tam Split.
"TimTam Split/Split a Tim Tam/Insert Banana/Rap (sic) in a crepe/Put between two TimTams/Ice Cream/Surrounded by Whipped Cream/Cherry on Top".
![Published poet and former politician Clive Palmer.](/web/20170307232729im_/http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/l/x/q/v/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gus8ci.png/1488892327453.jpg)
Possibly guilt stricken at such high-calorie crooning, he followed this up within minutes with "Beetroot slice/tomato nice/Watermelon sauce/First Course".
Clive says people obviously love his work: he boasts his Facebook reach was calculated at 2.7 million last week, and his 70,000 Twitter followers are re-tweeting his artworks everywhere. And now he's pulling in the electronic music crowd, with one of his poems being recorded by Australian music duo Peking Duk, he confides.
It is not simply food that has sent Clive's inner poet quivering. "Licking lips/swelling hips/nips/tips/Elvis/Sips/rips/Bangkok", he tapped out on Monday.
Shortly before this effort, he went all multicoloured psychedelic: "Green roses/purple oceans/Yellow feelings/quiet thunder/Loud ants/Awkward".
![Clive Palmer has revealed his inner poet.](/web/20170307232729im_/http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/l/x/q/y/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gus8ci.png/1488892327453.jpg)
No, we don't know what it means, and neither does Clive.
"Poetry doesn't really have a meaning," he told Fairfax Media. But yes, the food poems are the result of the diet.
![Clive Palmer collaborators Peking Duk.](/web/20170307232729im_/http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/k/y/l/7/a/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gus8ci.png/1488892327453.jpg)
"When you're on a diet you think about food a lot, and poetry sort of comes from within you," he declared.
Mercifully, he hasn't repeated anything quite approaching his literary effort from the weekend: "Dung/Did a dung/Ding a ling ding/Ding dung/Dong/Ning/Wing ding/All gone".
![Clive Palmer spruiks diet foods on Twitter.](/web/20170307232729im_/http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/w/2/r/a/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gus8ci.png/1488892327453.jpg)
Now he's taken it all to a whole new level, tweeting a video of himself apparently salivating over what sounds like Peking Duck.
In fact, it's weirder – to those in the know, he's spruiking an upcoming tour by the electronic duo called Peking Duk.
"My lips are licking for a nice Peking Duk, but it's a different sort of Peking Duk," says Palmer on his video. "I'll be there watching them and I hope you will be too."
It seems a most generous offering after the Peking Duk fellows, Adam Hyde and Reuben Styles, tempted him with a tweet of their own, inviting him to collaborate.
"Really loving your lyric suggestions," Peking Duk teased last week. "We can hold the launch party at the Tim Tam factory. DM [direct message] us."
And glory be, Clive came through. Furthermore, he said, he'd written a song exclusively for the band, and it was being recorded, though he couldn't supply the lyrics for contractual reasons.
He'd turned down an offer to go on tour with Peking Duk, even if his lips were licking at the opportunity.
Lest you imagine Clive's flight of poetic fancy might be a recent brain-snap, you should know he had a book of poetry published in 1980 ("can't remember what it was called") and, by invitation, he publicly recited some of his work at the Queensland Poetry Festival in Brisbane last year.
A man of uncommon soul, clearly.