Live Encounters Poetry & Writing February 2024.
Once upon a tale, in a love far away, poems by Paris Rosemont.
Once upon a tale, in a love far away
A siren’s long-distance lament
From petalled lips I long to sip sweet honeysuckle’s wine
Strings of my corset loosening, libation spills my lust
On loam implanting roots with love—a wild Barossa vine
Oh, scatter seeds and yield to me, between my lips combust
Let slip your merlot down my throat and let me sate my glut
For I am one athirst, adrift, delirious on a sea
Of salted tears I cannot drink, and therein lies the cut
The bottles blue as shells untouched: a sailor’s remedy
When miles away from tangible caresses on one’s skin
A buxom manatee wades by, with folds of slippery flesh
The sun beats down relentlessly; hallucination wins
You dive into the coolness, tumbling deftly with a splash
‘Tis I, my love, I sing to you—come warm my watery bed
Forsake the other world you knew, come love with me instead.
This poem is in the form of a Sonnet in iambic heptameter, otherwise known as a ‘Fourteener’
© Paris Rosemont
Paris Rosemont is an Asian-Australian poet whose debut poetry collection, Banana Girl, was published by WestWords in 2023. Publications include Verge Literary Journal, FemAsia Magazine, Red Room Poetry’s ‘Admissions’, Bristol Noir (UK) and Sky Island Journal (USA). Winner: Hammond House Publishing Origins Poetry Prize 2023 (UK), New England Thunderbolt Poetry Prize 2022; Shortlisted: International Proverse Poetry Prize 2023 (Hong Kong), Born Writers Award 2023; Longlisted: Liquid Amber Poetry Prize 2023, New Writers Poetry Competition 2023 (UK). Awarded: Atelier Artist-in-Residence Ireland 2024, Kathmandu International Artist in Residence 2024, Varuna Shanghai Lamplight Residency 2023 and WestWords/Copyright Agency Fellowship 2023. Paris’s niche is performance poetry. She has performed at events including the Sydney Fringe Festival, world premiere of Slam Messiah 2022, Ubud Writers & Readers Festival 2023 and Short+Sweet Festival Illawarra 2023, where she was awarded Best Overall Production (runner up), Best Actor (runner up) and Best Script. www.parisrosemont.com