Poems
-
Ravensthorpe
By Luke SweedmanCrucible of eucalypts
a woven thread
a spiritual tome
a million forms -
Jarrah (buying the block)
By Renee Pettitt-SchippEucalyptus marginata
I am a shooter, the seller says
and neither of us meet his eye
earth, shade of a wound, up high -
Banksia
By Scott-Patrick MitchellI thought they were a bird. Or rather, birds. On a branch, flocking. Out on a limb, imagination sparking. The mind can transform, as can fire, with tongue, laughing. Like a tired owl, hiding its eyes, the banksia misplaces birdsong, not singing. But rather in bloom. A thousand individual flowers spiral upward as feather. Beneath all of this, banks… -
Things are not as they appear, nor are they otherwise
By Nandi ChinnaMeelup Mallee
Progeny nursed in its lumpen fist,
a giant inhabits the limestone ridge.
Shy in its limey cave of soil, -
What is a tree?
By Luke SweedmanWhat is a tree but a throw away term
a northern hemisphere assumption
that we all grow straight and tall
and adopt a standard upward function -
kangaroo paw
By Scott-Patrick Mitchellblood beats red, thumps in
elation, dread. how, as an
immigrant, my ears rang
with this land sang diaspora -
Fremantle Mallee
By Nandi ChinnaEucalyptus foecunda
Every now and then I go visiting
my guerrilla trees, -
Desert Delirium
By Luke SweedmanThe desert is a brooding furnace of sand
remote dunes, a night sky full of unknowable stars
falling, flying and dying like all of us can
a place that in season leaves no heat in the land -
In mind’s eye
By Luke SweedmanMallee in my mind’s eye is mostly a below ground affair
what we see above is only a part of the overall mystery
the multi stems above ground are part of the living heart
that sends a maze of roots below to unknown depths -
Sweedman’s Sprawling Mallee
By Nandi ChinnaEucalyptus Sweedmaniana
In every moment of human time
our skins open, porous to influence -
Mallee
By Renee Pettitt-SchippEucalyptus myriandena
Narembeen
~ Written on Noongar Country with Noongar translations informed by Ballargong Custodian, David Collard. -
-
Exploration in mallee
By Luke Sweedman“A load on each spirit, a cloud o’er each soul
With eyes that could scan not, our destiny’s scroll”
~ Ernest Giles crossing the Great Victoria Desert
-
Red Flowering Gum
By Scott-Patrick MitchellHome is a syllable in your heart. In order to speak it whole, you must clap it out: with glee; in ovation; as sarcastically as the Venus de Milo. Here, you build new monuments from stone, adorn altars with flowers the likes of which you have never known. But the Latin names are familiar, because back where you came from, somebody thought it’d be a… -
Marlee Pavillion
By Scott-Patrick MitchellCome, sit. Reflect. See yourself in this. You have travelled over 14,500 km's to reach this point. The world is not upside down. Nor is your life. It is just as it should be. Spinning: on axis; in love; out. You have travelled a lifetime to be here, in this place. How you have changed over 11,300 days. Yet still you hold on to that kernel of … -
Karri (or, Slow Arrival in Karri Country)
By Renee Pettitt-SchippEucalyptus diversicolour
Denmark, WA
~ Written on Noongar Country with Noongar translations informed by Pibulmun Custodian, Wayne Webb.
Remote as a god -
Old Grey Beard
By Daniel HansenSoft Grey Calm
Touches gently on the frequencies all around
Sorting through an assortment of vibrations apparent in the stars
Until it finds Love through the never ending shroud -
Macrocarpa
By Nandi ChinnaThe show takes place on the edge
of the car park. We sit in our cars,
engines cooling, as swirling red stamens
thrust off their woody caps. -
Marri (Remembering Meelup Regional Park)
By Scott-Patrick MitchellThe forest breathes us in. We are chasing bush orchids. Kambarrang is singing. Through a macro lens, petals bend, fill the screen. Blue; beard; duck. Your grin dazzles, blonde hair curling around my heart. We laugh. The forest smiles with us. Donkey; elbow; leek. Beyond the breadth of this, ocean swims. Here is the place of the moon rising. The fo… -
Mallee desert
By Luke SweedmanThe morning in the Great Sandy Desert
is an entirely new narrative of the senses
Thryptomene shrubs and mallee stands
a tonic, a memory, a gift that recompenses
