pentepoets.com
  • Home
  • Pente history
  • Meet the poets
    • Judith Bandidt
    • Lyn Browne
    • Brad Drew
    • Susie Faint
    • Deanne Lister
    • Ron Wiseman
  • Selected poems
    • Poems by Judith
    • Poems by Deanne
    • Poems by Lyn
    • Poems by Susie
    • Poems by Brad
    • Poems by Ron
  • Books on Sale
    • Fridays at Flaxton
    • Some Other Landscape
    • Some Other Landscape eBook version
    • Hinterland to Headland
    • On the Poetry Trail: Hinterland
  • Gallery
  • Poetry Trail
  • Reviews
    • Comments
    • Reviews
  • audio Maleny
  • audio Little Yabba
  • audio Montville
  • Poetry Trail Story
  • MALENY TRAIL POEMS
  • MONTVILLE TRAIL POEMS
  • LITTLE YABBA SITE POEMS
  • Hinterland Poems audio
  • POETRY TRAIL ARCHIVE
  • CO

 Virtual Meeting  May 2012   Poem #2

5/21/2012

4 Comments

 
Balancing act

We step across wide water,
taking our time.  Breathing:
it’s taken most of our life.
You shout and I can’t look back.

Water dark as guinness –
what made us think we could risk it?

Out here in the middle
the river fizzes faster.
Too late to turn back.
Green rocks now,
lank weed stranded,
every one a slippery stretch
and the far bank receding.

Alone together, balancing,
too far apart to clasp.

Lyn Browne

4 Comments
Judy link
5/21/2012 07:10:45 am

Hi Lyn

Super poem, marrying the literal with the metaphorical — very clever. Sparse, yet evocative.

The last two lines are very powerful. Anyone in a longterm relationship must feel this, but can't express it as lucidly as you have.

And of course one can read it simply in the literal sense and enjoy the visual imagery.

Judy

Reply
Dee
5/31/2012 10:30:28 am

Hello Lyn,

Isn't this a great idea?! You don't seem so far away- I felt I was out on Dartmoor hiking over that rugged landscape when I was reading your poem. I love the double meaning too. Don't change anything.
Dee

Reply
Brad Drew
6/2/2012 11:38:20 am

Hi Lyn
I think Judy summed this up beautifully before I even read it and it's hard to go beyond that.
It's a powerful and very effective piece of work and it's impossible to read/hear it without being conscious of the metaphorical underlying the literal – nay, the literal is incidental to the metaphorical, which is the core of power in the piece and I'm sure many could say it's a poem about everyman/couple.
Well done. Brad

Reply
susie faint
2/5/2013 04:53:18 pm

hunting bears

I've looked beneath her pillow
felt for lumps inside the sheets
between the mattress and quilt she kicks
to the end when fast asleep

of course I've checked the toy box
a hundred times or more
beneath the rumpled bath mat...
behind the bedroom door

I've checked inside her pillow slip
all her little ports and bags
'cos she likes to stuff him into things
you'd never dream he'd fit

now, don't forget the staircase
up, down and underneath because
that is a fancy hiding place...
a lair where bears would meet

we must not give in to panic
though I know enough to swear
we cannot dream of bed-time
without her precious bear...

oh, Anthony, you are clever...
we really should have guessed
she's jammed him in your bait box
top that, to hide a bear!



Susie Faint



christmas in july

light was merely peeping
when I crept from our camp leaving
all others quietly sleeping - not a word

the lapping of not distant tide had called
to paths I hoped would wind
to the solitude I wished to find
on the brink of an indian sea -
where imagery of exotic lands
markets, spice, and desert sand
and language I might never hear
could sing their songs to me

but on that path of powder red
in silence, the unexpected stood
on watch for barefoot passing -
aftermath of fire -

black, skeletal, wattle scrub
grass blades burnt to ground
clean scent of ash and char

and yet,
the legacy of night and sea
shrouded every crow-black tree
in dimensions of translucency -
glistering salt in mist

and to every stick and crevassed root
to every blackened limb
countless webs so fine were strung
spun with dew in rising sun

and all of this a gift to me -
white christmas by an indian sea


Susie Faint

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    May 2015
    October 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    April 2013
    February 2013
    December 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012

    Categories

    All
    Australian Poetry
    Fantasy
    From Abroad
    Life Poems
    War Poems

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly