The Curve of the World — for World Poetry Day, March 21
Last Friday, 21 March, was World Poetry Day.
Tis a little belated, but here’s The Curve of the World for you today, to celebrate poetry and human creativity:
The Curve of the World
Summer breathes
through marram grass, salt-tough
where the southerly whips in
off the Pacific, light &
shadow all the way out
to the distant smudge
of albatross feeding—at night
you see lights dance,
squid boats fishing
the same spot.
The larger ships, too,
follow the albatross road,
tall towers disappearing
beneath the curve
of the world …
The wind sweeps in, recounts
tales of ships, albatross,
men with eyes bleached
to seams … tells
it all to the salt grass
and driftwood piled
into a beach fire—
smoke wavers upward
in a thin stream, dissipates
into the gulf
of sky.
(c) Helen Lowe
.
Published in JAAM 27: Wanderings, ed. Ingrid Horrocks, 2009
Victory Beach: Otago Peninsula
