Live Encounters Poetry & Writing 16th Anniversary Volume Seven
November- December 2025
Tossing flim-flams, poems by Piet Nieuwland.
Tossing flim-flams
Pluvial and riverine flooding
engulfing the fever of the curved shore
the great lapping desire of fluid boundaries
in a county based on the violence of speculative colonial cartography
scattered with imperial graffiti
of pearls and gladioli and crystalline rumors
of luscious Oriental contours that sparkle
a network of spiders that ride upon a frothing squall
blossoming pohutukawa bleeding a lament for the coast
dense curling crimson ruby black vermilion glimmers
of angels Semenaza, Zyandoz and Umabel
tossing the flim-flams of the law with their friends
the niddy-noddy satchel –loaded seekers of Friar Bindfastatis
and twenty-seven girls chasing white butterflies
from the tranquility of a previous existence
in an old cemetery in Oakura Taranaki
that features on maps of blood
and melancholy
Riff is
A choir of seagulls does their best on ‘Heavenly Pop Hit’ a song
by the Chills
Trees with skins of mica breathe into the billowing
purple gush of lush magnolia branches
where a puriri moth rests camouflaged
clouds gather collecting charge over Kaihu Plateau dark
today three septillion yottawatts of light were emitted by two
black holes merging
a field of mushrooms sheds spores into the still air
I am hurrying, though heading nowhere
toward language as desire, love as colour
no one sees bittern by the river anymore
we sing waiata in the community hall
and Earth is a magic carpet
a spectacle of glisten gleam sparkle and twinkle
spin surfing and slip tangling
on a guitar jangle riff
Squirm
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, and a new collection, Anticipation, is developing. 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, convenes local monthly poetry gatherings and is a book reviewer. He trained as a forester and once worked as a conservation strategist for Te Papa Atawhai. https://www.pietnieuwland.com/