pasted
on the river. Everything is quiet. Now and then, a wave
breaks
the message, temporarily changing the font from bold to
italics.
The moon in its crescent appearance is the precision blade
of a
Shaolin warrior. I’m concerned that if I gaze too long, I may
carelessly
jag my retinas on its razor points, pierced globes adding
vitreous
humor into this serious stretch of river. A mullet leaps
from
the water and reconstructs the moon’s message; it is now the
sound
of one silver hand clapping. Above, an anonymous comet
breaches
the sky a small eternity, but shooting stars don’t have the
recoil
of a poem executed in the lull of moon fire.
oval mirror lights
seduction
on night-water
flagrant
moon kisses
from: Samuel Wagan Watson, Smoke Encrypted Whispers, University of Queensland Press, 2004. Reproduced here with permission from the author.
Smoke Encrypted Whispers is a collection of Samuel Wagan Watson's earlier work with the addition of a number of later prose poems. What I loved about these was the sense of the poet moving from prose poetry to the haiku which complete the almost journal-like entries. The later poems in this collection are available as an audio recording with responses from 22 Brisbane composers. When Samuel sent me the collection, he mentioned 'revolver' was his favourite poem in it and I think I agree. I love the wave changing the font, the mullet leap and - having lived in Brisbane by the Brisbane River, I know and love the landscape.
Samuel Wagan Watson is a poet with five published books and two major
awards for his writing, the Queensland Premiers Literary Awards, David
Unaipon Prize for Unpublished Indigenous Writers (1999) and the NSW
Premiers Literary Award, Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry Book of the
Year (2005). You can hear him talking about his poetic influences here.
Catherine Bateson is a poet and writer for children and young adults who lives in Melbourne, Australia. You can read her Tuesday poem blog here.
4 comments:
Oh, this is exquisite. It has the clarity and fluid ambiguity of a dream shot through with reality's detail and tremble of light. The words leave the page. I see a painting, hear music.
Thank you, Samuel and Catherine.
Prose poem or haibun? With the haiku-style conlusion, the form suggests a haibun, but whatever the name, it evokes a wonderful word picture of the Brisbane River. I enjoyed the clever play on words as well. :)
Thank you for posting.
Oh, you're right, Helen - it is a haibun. Apologies everyone!
I just love this. The specificity of the images, the writing metaphor, the wonderful changes that animate the scene. It feels so fresh and invigorating! Thank you!
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