Live Encounters Poetry & Writing Volume Three November-December 2024
Aotearoa Poets and Writers Special Edition
Tell me please, Im listening, poems by Piet Nieuwland.
Tell me please, Im listening
Tell me about the youth of rivers
about the black luxuriant dress filled with birds and jungle flowers
about the lakes of your sunken eyes
about your glow of singing
the putangitangi honking over Waiarohia stream
about the ancestry of your grafted peach, its architecture
about the agony of your soul, the frothy trail of ocean
tell me about that burst of tui in a totara, the provocation of fertile soil
about the tide rising in your warm throat, your eyes thickening
those parachute kisses flowering on the moon
cloud over the city with two tamarillos
about the western road north with untitled acrylic and wax on card
system virtue with pretty violins living in harmony
all around the world
please tell me about it, please, Im listening
Shift three
The month expands covering all distances
with an incandescence of wind
in the unit we make shifts
from lilies to nikau, a photovoltaic view
and intersections of cables wires and struts
that join us from this here to your there
from the breath of day and the exhalation of night
quiet pools of light that surround the valley
fertile lava flows and alluvial terraces
fall of rain through kohekohe trees
an inflorescent twist of petals, leaves,
feathers wing and wink of inanga fin
a frond flurry, totara trunk expansion
dense puriri mass
a strike, a strike, the drum beats
the drum beats for you
if it’s good enough for them
it’s good enough for everyone
all of us, for you, for you
That front when the dead descend
When it rains the dead descend
when it rains the dead ascend to disappear into the living air
inhabiting the scent of dark ultra-dark orchids
with the fertile breath of volcanoes
and the fresh winds of the ocean
I see your singing eyes
crying out with pleasure
the aromas of desire float into a void
I taste the horizon of your silky hair
and the enthusiasm of your lower back
cloaked in merino wool and clusters of paua eyes
The silt of night weighs down the duvet
damp with shadows of dreams
© Piet Nieuwland
Piet Nieuwland lives in Whangarei. His poems and flash fiction appear in print and online journals in Australia, USA, India, Aotearoa, Antarctica and elsewhere. His latest books, As light into water, and We enter the, are published by Cyberwit. He publishes Fast Fibres Poetry, an annual anthology of Te Tai Tokerau poetry and participates in collaborative visual art exhibitions. As co-ordinator of Intangential, a short poetry flash fiction music dance show for the local fringe festival, he also performs live poetry and is a book reviewer. He trained as a forester and once worked as a conservation strategist for Te Papa Atawhai. www.pietnieuwland.com