October 2020 – Page 3 – Ruru ki Te Ruru

gulls and lamps

gulls and lamps

gull n lamp — Gull on a lamp ad infinitum, as conceived and pictured by the Weathercats

along the
foreshore road
has it ever been?
a gull on every lamp
all facing seaward?
rare but
not impossible
i thought
the sun pearl
through cloud
the sun a pearl
in scalloped
cloud the
gulls stood
to attention
every last
one of
them.

3, 4 june 2013
bucklands beach

The music is from the LP ‘Japanese Noh Music by the Japanese ensemble Kyoto Nohgaku Kai.

voices

voices

**The ripples became slender skiffs…image pawed by Little Cat**

nights we’d row out over
the night like oil my father
would say of such depth of calm.
the oar swung into the pulling
dark underneath ripples
become skiffs of the moon.
the oar sculled dripping
dark into silver.
i’d let go the anchor
imagine its fall
afraid it would never
grip in that mud
i played on
dug my heels into
on the low tide.
afloat i felt it
good
to be family
the smell of the kerosene lamp
the purr of its light to
draw bright fish
from the heart
of dream
a swell slapping
under the hull.
Continue reading “voices”

own good time

own good time

in sunlight
a black beetle
was making its
way across the
tennis court
like a man
in a dinghy
tiredly
patiently
rowing a
night sea
the magpie
on the steel
pipe atop
the wire-netting
in a lift and
drop of wing
was
gone.