Written in Response to Australian Children’s Poetry Prompt 6#
Perhaps this a young adults poem though rather than for children. What do you feel are the themes of this poem and what age group would you share it with? As for the structure, the key to that is the word window. . .
I will keep thinking about the prompt and see if I can create a poem for younger children.
Love this poem from Melissa. Go check out her sensitive poems and mesmerising photography.
Like a fishing heron
I will stand on one leg
And wait
For the healing to begin.
It starts deep inside
The silent knitting together
Of cells and tissues
Into an intricate suspension bridge
Spanning the wound
Slowly
The restorative mind fixes its beam
On the hotspot
Tapping the reserves
Of sunlight and music
Channeling the resources
Of tea and compassion
The balm of small feats mustered
It is a balancing act
A resolution
To keep the self-pity genie
Stoppered in its bottle
Regeneration
A humbling of the spirit
A discovery that strength and patience
Are one and the same.
There are days when you can play
with shadows to see the light
you can find these on journeys
past cane and fallen down trees
Life has corners you can’t see
twists and turns
still photography.
Sometimes we don’t see connections
We go and miss
the shimmering.
Sometimes we don’t see the beauty
We’ve forgotten how to feel.
You can chase the sunlight
across the window panes.
You can turn it into
anything you want.
Climb and clamber
shine and Sway
in the forests
light the way.
Capture a glimpse of connection
dream of nature’s rhapsody
make this a day to remember.
Chase the shadows into light.
Sometimes we don’t see connections.
We go and miss the shimmerings
Sometimes we don’t see the beauty,
We’ve forgotten how to feel.
Make this a day to remember
Chase the shadows into light
(c) June Perkins, song lyric.
Photo Credit: June Perkins
Footsteps I hear
Loud
Soft
Allegro
Andante
Footsteps to follow
courage
resilience
persistence
recovery
Footsteps of mystery
creation
birth
life
purpose
Footsteps I can’t avoid
milestones
old
memory
death
Footsteps
loss
pain
healing
renewal
Inner footsteps
Silence
Meditation
Journey
Understanding
(c) June Perkins,
Tracing the past in the lines of a book
Doesn’t always work
Doesn’t always heal.
Sometimes we have to go back to the dark.
Sometimes we need to search for the spark.
Find the words that work, find the words that heal what we feel.
Stories of memory,stories of land
Words they are tricklin’ all through my hands
Stories tryin’ to work
Stories tryin’ to heal what we feel.
Aunties and Uncles are under the trees.
Stories are floating around in the breeze.
Stories tryin’ to work, stories tryin’ to heal what we feel.
Tracing the past in the lines of a book
It doesn’t always work
And it doesn’t always heal
Sometimes we have to go back to the dark.
Sometimes we need to search for the spark.
Find the words that work, find the words that heal what we feel.
A song rippling out from Ripple, written on the day of the national apology to Australia’s Indigenous people.
