Joyce Parkes
A SECOND CHANCE
(In memory of a grand Grandmother)
Listening to the beat of survival,
the rhythm of lo nafseek
lirkod – and never
stop dancing – had Hedda
raise her frame
when she and her Grand-
mother were hungry, walk
to the tap when
thirsty. Having Hedda
thank the Oma who gave
her shelter, from
whom she inherited the
chance to cradle poetry;
nurtured in the Darling
Ranges, furthered on
the Swan Coastal Plain
where in a house
attached to a garden
she writes of a certain
consanguinity, place
and pith.
EYEING WINDOWS
She thought to sketch an eye-
brow, then proceeded to
draw another writer’s lenses
focused on the canvas
of cathexis and the senses;
noticing the ones experiencing
homelessness sleeping on
benches in a park and law-
makers sitting on benches
in parliament where visitors
could visit argument, pro-
test, protocol, progress,
aspects of easels, brushes
and frames – and hear pleas
to provide footwear,
blankets, a bed, a kitchenette,
under a roof and a ceiling
made by Could and Would for
the neglected who may yet
manage a meal at
a table partnering chairs
eyeing windows, walls
and a door assessing floors,
an alcove, a ceiling.
FACING THE PACIFIC
Is a poem like a window in a sea
of dwellings on aspects
of grass and glass, pith, place
and asks directing
distinction and definition to also
note oceans threatening low-lying
country, as well as
a voice asking for wind and
solar energy, hydro-electricity
and carbon farming?
Enduring global warming urges
Bother to write, as
Parliamentarians shine and
mining magnates dine,
coal miners die of black lung
disease. Making dwellers
and sojourners weep when
fires, droughts, floods, sweep
the land bleaching
the Great Barrier Reef.
(In memory of a grand Grandmother)
Listening to the beat of survival,
the rhythm of lo nafseek
lirkod – and never
stop dancing – had Hedda
raise her frame
when she and her Grand-
mother were hungry, walk
to the tap when
thirsty. Having Hedda
thank the Oma who gave
her shelter, from
whom she inherited the
chance to cradle poetry;
nurtured in the Darling
Ranges, furthered on
the Swan Coastal Plain
where in a house
attached to a garden
she writes of a certain
consanguinity, place
and pith.
EYEING WINDOWS
She thought to sketch an eye-
brow, then proceeded to
draw another writer’s lenses
focused on the canvas
of cathexis and the senses;
noticing the ones experiencing
homelessness sleeping on
benches in a park and law-
makers sitting on benches
in parliament where visitors
could visit argument, pro-
test, protocol, progress,
aspects of easels, brushes
and frames – and hear pleas
to provide footwear,
blankets, a bed, a kitchenette,
under a roof and a ceiling
made by Could and Would for
the neglected who may yet
manage a meal at
a table partnering chairs
eyeing windows, walls
and a door assessing floors,
an alcove, a ceiling.
- More than 110,000 people are homeless in Australia.
FACING THE PACIFIC
Is a poem like a window in a sea
of dwellings on aspects
of grass and glass, pith, place
and asks directing
distinction and definition to also
note oceans threatening low-lying
country, as well as
a voice asking for wind and
solar energy, hydro-electricity
and carbon farming?
Enduring global warming urges
Bother to write, as
Parliamentarians shine and
mining magnates dine,
coal miners die of black lung
disease. Making dwellers
and sojourners weep when
fires, droughts, floods, sweep
the land bleaching
the Great Barrier Reef.
- ‘A carbon Sequestrian in the land sector making for a pay rise while watching the trees grow could be an attractive proposition for ageing farmers.’
- ‘For the first time coral bleaching has struck the Great Barrier Reef two years in a row foreshadowing the reef’s dire future as the world warms.’
- ‘Australia’s U.N. Report fail on inequality and Climate Change.’ www.theconversation.com
Copyright © Joyce Parkes 2019
Joyce Parkes is published in The Best Australian Poems, Westerly, LinQ, foam:e, Meanjin, Axon, Landscapes (ECU), Meniscus, Cuttlefish and similarly dedicated literary magazines, journals and anthologies in Australia and in the UK, Finland, Canada, Germany, the US, New Zealand,
Northern Ireland, Greece and the Netherlands.
Northern Ireland, Greece and the Netherlands.