Live Encounters Poetry & Writing August 2025
Adieu to Polynesia, poems by Jena Woodhouse.
Adieu to Polynesia
…not to wake
by the shining sea,
the limpid eye
of the sky in me…
Linked in coralline tiaras,
sagas the seafarers made,
looped in leis and pearly chains
the fragrant islands floated then
to grace sublime meridians,
dream-wreaths with mesmerising names
romancing the intensity of bleu-marine
and emerald; a melded, deliquescent
glaze defining the horizon’s rim
in azure, sapphire, tourmaline and jade.
Wide and starry were
the night skies there,
and limitless the sea,
that shows its gleaming
tides and mirrors
nevermore to me—
Whales and the Moon
A Lore unto Themselves*
Awed by their immense reserves of stamina and eloquence,
belatedly we strive to save
those gentle giants, the planet’s whales, working with colossal
brains and memories to right old wrong,
yearning for safe passage on their marathon endurance trials—
singers in the wilderness
whose hearts are audible for miles, evoking journeys that arouse
our sublimated consciousness—
nomadic spirits of the great abyss, whom we regard as brave,
imagining our forebears of the steppe,
the heirs to freedom’s song—
* from the series, The Epic Voyages of Whales
© Jena Woodhouse
Jena Woodhouse has twelve book and chapbook publications spanning several genres, including seven poetry titles. A traveller and speaker of several European languages, she lived and worked for a decade in Greece, where her unpublished poetry collection, Tidings from the Pelagos: a Polyphony, was shortlisted in the Greek-based Eyelands International Book Awards 2024. A recipient of writing residencies and retreats in Scotland, Ireland, France and Greece, she has also been shortlisted three times for the Montreal International Poetry Prize and awarded other honours, including invitations to give poetry readings in France, Germany and Greece.