Michael Mintrom: Thee Poems After Pat White

Waiting on the New Moon, by Pat White (New Zealand) 2022 © Pat White, image courtesy of the artist.

​From the Plains
 
The day began with a nor wester,
storms expected by nightfall.
The wind blew wildly
 
as if you could soon be
the last person on the planet.
Blinds rattled. Doors slammed.
 
People of the plains 
fear what can’t be seen.
Clouds brightened to red
 
changing, changing.
On the veranda, I painted
a blanket of land and sky
 
to wrap about me
to sleep inside till dawn.

Plantation Light, by Pat White (New Zealand) 2022 © Pat White, image courtesy of the artist.

What Trees Remember 
 
Holding their space in the forest, trees remember
starlight filtering to warm, dark earth
 
and the sound of the violin 
before the violin was made.
 
Bark gathering moss, trees recall
giant birds flying from mountains
 
and songs made by fluttering wings
as birds built their nests.
 
Touching branch to branch, trees
share stories of sailing ships 
 
their ancestors held inside
before the world became a globe. 
 
Books and newspapers come and go. 
Trees think back to when the first seed split.

Bess and the Ohope Beach Seat, by Pat White (New Zealand) 2022 © Pat White, image courtesy of the artist.

The Empty Seat 
 
Our walks beside water, punctuated 
by gnarled sticks and steep steps
took us above thoughts we carried,
across long grass to where we could read
beyond the story so far, 
the history of bodies and bones.
Who was it, we asked, who made this place?
But not on the first visit, not right away.
 
Repeated, the walk became a ritual
something known, but still holding
mysteries like a quest. The last time
we got as far as the seat
we saw its frame clasped to sky and cloud,
sniffed in the breeze the season changing.
​
​Michael Mintrom

Michael Mintrom is from Aotearoa New Zealand and lives in Australia. His poems have appeared in various literary journals in those two countries, such as Landfall, Meanjin, Meniscus, takahē and Westerly. Other recent work can be found in The Drabble, The Ekphrastic Review, Literary Yard, The Metaworker, Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, and Shot Glass Journal.