Paris Rosemont - Diomedea - Live Encounters

Rosemont LE P&W Vol 2 Nov-Dec 2025

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Live Encounters Poetry & Writing 16th Anniversary Volume Two
November- December 2025

Diomedea, poems by Paris Rosemont.

Diomedea

Contemporary sonnet after Lois Herman’s artwork ‘Ghost Vessel’

Out on the slate-

grey horizon—the very same

shade as my lost

lover’s eyes, a humble

sailboat skims the waves

through spitting sleet

and sheets of fog.

Its hull an urn

for secrets kept, for summers

past, for dreams still-

born. Its sails of snow

unfurl like wings:

an albatross

in search of rest.

Mary Smokes Weed

A stakehouse sonnet (after Mary I, aka ‘Bloody Mary’)

CONTRARY Mary, how your garden grows

Enriched with blood and bone of those who sinned:

Those smokin’ lads all lit up in a row;

Your savageness burst forth from wounds within.

REJECTED child, violently wild you grew;

With barren seeds and tangled weeds you choked.

Your father’s love you barely ever knew

Because of that vile wench on whom he’d dote.

A BASTARD child: your new station in life

So he could take his paramour to bed

Legitimately making her his wife;

At least you got to keep your pretty head.

OH, MARY—your name lingers on the lips

Of folks who lap you up in little sips.

Remnants (a haiku series)

(i)
staring at fine cracks
in the ceiling—remnants of
a great depression

(ii)
out of compost springs
new life—an onion—beauty
worth crying over

(iii)
wobbling through heat haze
spitting on hot tin bonnet
eggs sunny side up

(iv)
whip bird pierces air
thundercrack of blue fragments
punctuating peace

Paris Rosemont is a Thai-Australian poet and author of Banana Girl (2023) and Barefoot Poetess (2025). Her poetry has been widely published and awarded worldwide, including first place in the Hammond House Publishing Origins Poetry Prize 2023 (UK) and Honourable Mention in the Fish Poetry Prize 2025 judged by Billy Collins. Paris has been on judging panels including the Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards 2025, and her books have been shortlisted for awards in Australia, Greece, the UK and USA. She is a member of the Randwick City Council Arts & Culture Advisory Committee and sits on the Hunter Writers’ Centre Board. Paris may be found at www.parisrosemont.com

Paris Rosemont – Diomedea

Diomedea

Mary Smokes Weed

Remnants (a haiku series)

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