Poem: List

List

These things for reason and the feel of life:

a half sack of zinc-shiny clouts when putting on a new roof,

cedar under my woodwork plane,

a hand hoe into spring earth;

Liptons strong-brewed in the morning,

curried lamb,

Beirut lentils in onion,

French burgundy;

Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Conrad’s Lord Jim,

my son on piano playing Knocking on Heaven’s Door;

Hemingway’s Café Iruna in Pamplona,

hiking between Smiggin Holes and Dead Horse Gap,

dawn and sunset on the escarpment at Olifants Camp;

for Robbo and me –

the last two rollies in the packet

and dregs of chateau cardboard over poem drafts,

shouting spin out! spin out!

more wine! more wine!

That photo on my wall of the first footprint on the moon;

headlines in the paper one morning –

the double helix unwound,

The Mahogany Ship found,

the latest tyrant is no more;

if no end to war,

then short days and happy ones.

John Miles has been the Independent Weekly and InDaily Poet’s Corner editor since the column’s inception in April 2006. His poems today, first appeared in his hardcover, letterpress limited-edition collection He Dances, published by Garravembi Press, Melbourne, in 1994.

Readers’ original and unpublished poems of up to 40 lines can be emailed, with postal address, to [email protected]. Submissions should be in the body of the email, not as attachments. A poetry book will be awarded to each accepted contributor.