Tuesday Poem - Two New Zealand Authors
It never stops in the famous story
does it, the wind, the wind?
It is there
when the book is shut, pelting
the house walls, pushing the pines
the wrong way, making the girl’s
skirts flounce like the edges
of the streamed clouds, her heart
riding the wind.
No wonder the sea
rings, throws salt at her lips,
the street tilts its deck
beneath the bright, flung stars.
Open the book, only that
will stop it. Open the book
to let her through.
Copyright - Vincent O’Sullivan: Further Convictions Pending
Victoria University Press
It’s National Poetry Week in New Zealand, so I wanted to use work by an NZ poet, and this poem manages to cover two. The first lines reference Katherine Mansfield’s famous Wellington story ‘The Wind! The Wind!’
A big thanks to Vincent for giving me his collection when I was in NZ last year, and for giving me permission to post this on the Tuesday Poem site.
For more Tuesday Poems visit the web site www.tuesdaypoem.blogspot.com
Great choice, Kathleen. I must get back into this collection. Vincent's poems are ones I read over and over, trying to work out how he does what he does.
ReplyDeleteI love this poem, Kathleen--and the echo to Mansfield.
ReplyDeleteI hope the process of translocating from UK to Italy, north to south, is going smoothly for you.