Almanac Poetry: Mirror
Red River Gum Trunk Detail. [Wikimedia Commons.]
Mirror
A pattern
in the bark of a tree
becomes a human face
— totemic, wild, sad.
I blink.
The face has disappeared.
(Acknowledgement: first appeared in my fourth poetry collection, Sacredly Profane, Ginninderra Press, South Australia, 2020.)
Read more from Kevin Densley HERE
Kevin Densley’s latest poetry collection, Please Feed the Macaws…I’m Feeling Too Indolent, is available HERE
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About
Kevin Densley is a graduate of both Deakin University and The University of Melbourne. He has taught writing and literature in numerous Victorian universities and TAFES. He is a poet and writer-in-general. His fifth book-length poetry collection, Please Feed the Macaws ... I'm Feeling Too Indolent, was published in late 2023 by Ginninderra Press. He is also the co-author of ten play collections for young people, as well as a multi Green Room Award nominated play, Last Chance Gas, published by Currency Press. Other writing includes screenplays for educational films.
Hi KD…I’ve been looking at the bark and I can see quite a few faces – largish, like English male mods; & then a few more – postage stamp size – perhaps a young child & a girl. I blink, but they are still there.
So I ask the question:
Are we barking up the same tree?
Sounds like we are, Karl – even if sometimes I blink, shake my head and am back to seeing a tree trunk again.
Thanks for your comments,
Love this KD, simple and mesmerising. Wonderful.
Thanks so much, Rick – that’s just the effect I was hoping for.
A reflective piece in more ways than one, KD. Superb.
Thanks, DB – pleased the poem worked upon you like this.