Dunedin and Around

By | 27 June 2005
Arrival


The light will let you know

that you are really here.


You will appear,

both to yourself and your companion


as bones, glowing in an x-ray,

or teeth, exposed in a dark mouth.

 

 

 


Acclimatisation


You will shed two dimensions

and unfurl,


like ink in infinite water.


Thoughts may turn to helium,

or the clouds.


Hearts tend to respond by lifting;

so many red balloons.

 

 

 


Accommodation


Proud shapes step in,

control the situation.


Be careful not to cut yourself

on corners.


Sleep comes quick as a knife.


 

 

 

Attractions


Further on, you may notice eels,

being fed blancmange


by an old woman.


Generations of fangs

have known the lightness


of her recipe,

a lesson in antonyms.

 

 

 


Afterwards


Photographs are best

viewed in the negative.


Light still fascinates

at the edges.


Scooped-out versions revolve,

like looted display cases.
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Catherine Vidler's collection of poems Furious Triangle was published in 2011 by Puncher & Wattmann. A chapbook, Canberra Poems, was recently published by Ginninderra Press, which will also shortly publish another chapbook of Catherine's trans-Tasman poems, The Window and the Tree. In October 2016 a chapbook of 28 visual poems made out of and in response to 'chaingrass', a word from Bill Manhire's poem 'Falseweed', will be published in electronic form by Jazz Cigarette. Further chaingrass work in the form of chaingrass 'patterns' appears or is forthcoming in ,em>The New Post literate, Otoliths, SCRIPTjr.nl, RENEGADE (an international anthology of visual poetry and language arts edited by Andrew Topel). A large collection comprising both chaingrass patterns and the original set of 28 visual poems is shortly to be published by STALE OBJECTS dePRESS. Catherine is editor of trans-Tasman literary magazine Snorkel.

http://chaingrasspatterns.weebly.com/

More by Catherine Vidler on Cordite Poetry Review →

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