WRITE THE WORLD REVIEW ARCHIVE

picture this:
a book of poems, plucked from a shelf
open to a familiar page,
the paper gently yellowed.
a singular voice fills the soft air
in this cold midnight winter.

picture this:
a young afternoon, quietly beginning
to fill with rain.
a man recites to the little child
the poem that he learned
when the book’s pages were clean and new.

picture this:
a different man, long ago
thinks about settlers, thinks about change
and thinks about House and Land.
he writes it down,
and the words become of everybody.

picture this:
now we are driving home
we are thinking about wind
in the nor-west; a lost dog
hiding in a barrel
we recite the poem, together.
it is perfect.


Footnote
The poem is “House and Land” by Allen Curnow, and always specifically the last verse.