Download PDF Here
Live Encounters Poetry & Writing September 2023
Treasure, poems by Michael J Leach.
Treasure
for my love, my treasure, Irina
after Johnny Flynn’s song ‘Detectorists’ *
i.
Sunday morning—
her eyelashes open
’gainst my right cheek
ii.
she drives us through bush
-land—
her playlist plays that folk song
by Johnny Flynn
iii.
we cross lush fields
lit by autumnal sun—
my hand finds hers
iv.
on her blanket by the estuary—
sounds of birdsongs,
tastes of
lips
v.
we embrace in the air
-port—
my name over the PA
vi.
this near-empty plane
lands—
her message
fills my phone screen
vii.
Sunday morning—
space
beside me
* 2014, https://youtu.be/Q58Gm18-IMY
Applied Neuroscience
after Benee’s song ‘Bagels’, which was created in collaboration
with Youthline NZ, ASB and a team of neuroscientists
When
I hear her voice
hum & speak
over the silkiest of beats,
my unfocussed mind flows
into a kind of meditative state
and focuses on fondest memories
of your memorable face.
When
I hear her voice
hum & speak
over the silkiest of beats,
I’m reminded of those two
wonderful weeks spent with you
savouring salmon bagels on the coast
of Awabakal Country.
When
I hear her voice
hum & speak
over the silkiest of beats,
those immersive feelings
of anxiousness & loneliness
swirl so sweetly away
down the drain.
* Benemusicc Limited, 2023, https://youtu.be/ARzOSZqY_vo
© Michael J Leach
Michael J. Leach (@m_jleach) is an Australian poet, critic and academic. Michael’s poems have appeared in journals such as Cordite Poetry Review, exhibitions such as the Antarctic Poetry Exhibition, anthologies such as Poetry d’Amour 2022: Love Poems (WA Poets Incorporated, 2022), and his two poetry books: the chapbook Chronicity (Melbourne Poets Union, 2020) and the full-length collection Natural Philosophies (Recent Work Press, 2022). Michael has won the UniSA Mental Health and Wellbeing Poetry Competition (2015), received a commendation in the Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine (2021), and jointly won the poetry category of the Minds Shine Bright Confidence Writing Competition (2022). He lives on unceded Dja Dja Wurrung Country and acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land.