Live Encounters Poetry & Writing September 2026
Natural States, poem by Michael J Leach.
Natural States
Here on this airbus,
I turn in my aisle seat
and peer over two passengers
to see through Plexiglas.
The topography is hilly and pastoral,
rolling out roughly 35,000 feet
below.
It forms the patchiest patchwork
of (im)perfect parallelograms
of such variegated
viridescence.
Gum trees
are (in)visible in the distance,
their foliage concealing
limbs that branch
like calm fractals.
That land is shifting
considerably
slower
than the strait
we just passed over.
Every single thing is distant—
background foreground ground no ground.
It’s all the same in a sense.
I feel
the need for perspective
the need for sea change
the need for tree change
the need for core change
the need for more change
the need.
Well, here I am descending
into The Natural State
for the first time
in my midlife.
As this airbus’s aerodynamics
propel me further from birth
and closer to Nipaluna,
I shut my eyes to visualise
the finer details
of forest floors and canopies.
I start
to breathe
from my diaphragm
one more.
© Michael J Leach
Michael J Leach resides on unceded Dja Dja Wurrung Country in Victoria, Australia. Michael’s poems can be found in journals such as Cordite Poetry Review, anthologies such as The Best Australian Science Writing (NewSouth Publishing, 2024 and 2025), and his four books: Chronicity (Melbourne Poets Union, 2020), Natural Philosophies (Recent Work Press, 2022), Rural Ecologies (In Case of Emergency Press, 2024), and Chords in the Soundscapes (Ginninderra Press, 2025). Michael’s poems have been recognised in competitions such as the University of Canberra Health Poetry Prize, Woollahra Digital Literary Award, Liquid Amber Poetry Prize, and Philippa Holland Award for Poetry.