Poems: Wetland & Cloud Music
Books & Poetry
Sue Cook contributes pair of pastoral poems for this week’s Poet’s Corner.
Wetland
Glenloth Creek, South Australia
I am first in the small car-park
but not on the winding path.
A long-legged duck appears
ahead of me, webbed feet
cautious on concrete.
On pond’s surface fringed
with bulrushes, two sturdy ducks
power across the water
like mini jet skis. They leave
a long V-ripple in their wake.
Another adult paddles on the spot,
treading water into widening circles
as she watches her three ducklings,
like bath toys with tiny motors,
weave in and out of the rushes.
On my side of the water
grey dirt edges still display
the mud-crazed patterns
of last summer.
Cloud Music
On a benign autumn day
out for a scenic drive
I think I see above
shiny angels, wings furled,
sitting on ivory pouffes
of cumulus clouds.
They dangle toes
in the sea-blue sky
as they toss invisible
lines over the edge –
fishing for souls
or trout tickling –
through the ether
we hear the glorious
sounds of Schubert’s
Trout Quintet on the radio
or is this celestial harmony
the voices of angels?
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Sue Cook was a senior English teacher, during which time she also edited the South Australian English Teachers Association annual poetry anthology. Her own collection,s ‘In Focus’ and ‘Water Music’, were published by Ginninderra Press in 2016 and 2018, with the latter making her Ginninderra’s Poet of the Month for October that year. Her poem Frog Cakes was featured in InDaily Poet’s Corner in 2015, from where it was taken up by the maker of that South Australian icon for promotional use. Her Kangaroo Island poems have also featured in InDaily Poet’s Corner, and we will be featuring two more of them soon.
Readers’ original and unpublished poems of up to 40 lines can be emailed, with postal address, to poetscorner@solsticemedia.com.au.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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