Poem: Poplars
In this weekâs Poetâs Corner contribution, Stephen Oliver takes a further look at the Waikato Region on New Zealandâs North Island.
Poplars
Tikitiki Road, Waikato
A phalanx of poplars further on
into Tikitiki Road, crouching lions,
pursued by tusks of shadow,
cutting between. Early autumn, March.
âSheep country?â I heard myself ask
in the otherwise light. And the
avenue of poplars either side of this
unsealed road, facing off
like bronze warriors; then becoming
bison, watering.
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Poplars, impressionistic
visitants, sweeping through the seasons.
Here, a scatter of leaves, gilded
offerings made to the valley gods from
these back country sentinels.
The avenue bolt straight, while in
the foreground bison bend golden heads,
in procession. The farmer on his
quad bike unfussily gone. âBack with
a tractor,â he said. Nearby, off
the dirt road up ahead, dogs chorused,
reverberated, seemingly distant.
Stephen Oliver has travelled widely, lived for 20 years in Australia, and now does so in New Zealand. He is a voice artist, writer and poet. He has freelanced as a production voice, narrator, newsreader, radio producer, columnist, copy and feature writer, and in the late 1970s signed on with the offshore radio ship âVoice of Peaceâ, anchored off Jaffa in Israel. He has published his poetry widely in international literary journals and anthologies, including âWriting to the Wireâ, University of Western Australia Publishing 2016, and âManifesto: A Political Anthologyâ, Otago University Press 2017. He is a regular contributor of creative non-fiction and poems to the American Association of Australasian Literary Studies journal âAntipodes: A Global Journal of Australian and New Zealand Literatureâ. He has had poems translated into German, Spanish, Chinese, and Russian, and has published 18 collections of his poetry, including âGone: Satirical Poems, New & Selectedâ, Greywacke Press, Canberra, 2016.
Readersâ original and unpublished poems of up to 40 lines can be emailed, with postal address, to poetscorner@solsticemedia.com.au. Submissions should be in the body of the email, not as attachments. A poetry book will be awarded to each accepted contributor.
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