A Nor’West Season

A Nor’west Season

Waiting . . .

the nor’west arch a pale slash

along cloud-filled sky, promises heat—

big bluster coming

beating in across the plains lifting

roofs tossing down

trees a dog howls

into the sun’s glazed eye

falls back into shadow

beneath a car body

propped on a rusted jack waits

for the lull . . .

—

Published, Crest to Crest: Impressions of Canterbury Prose & Poetry, Ed. Karen Zelas, Wily Publications, 2009

—

Although I have posted this poem here before (yes, it is one of mine), back in 2010 as it turns out, I am posting it again today because up until yesterday we’ve been having a blast of nor’west weather.

And a norwest winds means stinking hot—by NZ standards, that is. (I imagine anyone from India, Australia, or Africa will probably be sneering right about now. 😉 ) It’s not just heat, though: the norwester can be pretty destructive once it gets up a head of steam.

Yesterday was the culmination of the latest round of norwesters and what I call meltingly hot—until the southerly blew on through bringing some up-from-the-Antarctic, off-the-southern-ocean cool.

So today seemed a good time to honour the norwester, which is one of the defining characteristics of life in this part of NuZild (aka NZ.) I explain a bit more about that in the 2010 post: see the link above, or here.