Tuesday Poem
Today’s Tuesday–and that means that all around the country, and even internationally, poets are posting their Tuesday Poem. And over on the official Tuesday Poem blog, today’s poem is “Midnight Sonata” by Rebekah Tysoe, a second year student studying for a Bachelor of Communications at Massey University. You can read Rebekah’s poem here: http://tuesdaypoem.blogspot.com/
In 2003, I won the “Previously Unpublished” category of the Robbie Burns Poetry Competiton, on the theme of “Dunedin”, with this poem:
Rain Wild Magic
Rain, wind, wild, mist
shrouding the harbour
in mystery, wrapping around
hills hidden in half shadow,
while the harbour laps
against black rocks
and the salt mired spikes
of harakeke where the ducks
huddle in the lee of this
wilder shore and gulls flock
into a corner of sea wall—
a damp communion
of weather-driven misery.
The toi fronds dip and bend
above a leaden tide
as rain slides down
the light-refracted windscreen,
lies like beads on my face,
wrapping the whole world
in its shroud of mystery,
that is the spell of Dunedin:
a slow, creeping magic of rain
and mist and murky skies
that steals into your heart
and then your soul,
catching you unaware,
that day you wake
and find love there.
(c) Helen Lowe
When I wrote this poem I was living in Portobello on the Otago Peninsula, which lies between Otago Harbour and the Southern Ocean—a wild place with wilder weather. It’s an early poem, but I have tried to capture the intensity of place and weather.
I loved your poem about Dunedin, Helen, especially the last two lines. My late paternal Grandmother lived there and my sister and I loved staying with her and being taken to Larnach’s castleamong aother places. She had a gift for finding everything fun, which she loved to share with us as children.
Best,
Elizabeth.
Hi Elizabeth,
Thank you for ‘calling in.” I’m glad you enjoyed the poem. 🙂 It’s always a bit of a risk putting up an older poem, but I still believe Rain Wild Magic catches something of the “feel” of Dunedin—and the Otago harbour in particular on those “rain wild” days. I, too, love the Otago Peninsula—and pretty much Otago, full stop, to be honest.