Poem of the Week: SISTER TO THE SPHINX by Stephen Oliver
30 June, 2010
SISTER TO THE SPHINX
for Judith Baragwanath
Some poets long ago might have seen you as
odalisque reclining at one of those old Ponsonby
parties. Oh you were far too upright for that.
You who are sister to the sphinx, how is it then,
beautiful women soften the air about them as
they glide in a movement that is all about stillness?
Maybe it is the shock-wave effect. A mystery
to me and to every man - women too, I expect.
Castled on your lonely Isle in the Hauraki Gulf,
should the aged poet finally make safe harbour
past the headland, to anchor in the calmer waters
of your gaze, would you without hesitation,
leaning from the heights of your self imposed exile,
reach out one porcelain hand to buoy him up?
Stephen Oliver
from APOCRYPHA by Stephen Oliver, Cold Hub Press,159 Main Road, Governor’s Bay, Lyttelton R.D.I, New Zealand 2010 coldhub@gmail.com
Categories:
well that was a good read.. and HUZZAH for mariana, poet extraordinaire!
”x