AFTERNOON CLOUDS
This
poem, like a previous one-
"End of Day", is
based on the form of Japanese "Linked Verse". It is
composed of renga- a
short poem of two stanzas - the first or hokku later
led to the more well-known haiku form.
It has
three lines of 5-7-5 sound units (or in English acoustic syllables)
and the second of two lines has 7 and 7. Here the form is used as a
lyrical device - it is not a proper linked poem as that would have to
have been written by two poets taking turns. Nevertheless, the form
helps to focus imagery and can still incorporate a sort of
statement-and-response feeling- both in the relationship between
individual renka and within each renka between the first and second
stanza.
Late
winter and early spring on the north coast of NSW is often a dry
period. Clouds appear and then vanish without bringing rain. Yet time
passes and usually the cold and dry of winter is replaced by the
warmth and rains of summer.
In the poem the wind is late in winter (i.e. towards the end of
winter) and the swallow is "early" as it is there before
spring has started. I would
like to acknowledge comments on the Linked-In group "We Write
Poetry" that prompted some small revisions to the text.
AFTERNOON CLOUDS
Long afternoon
clouds
shade browning
winter hills with
drifting, lazy
patches,
White cloud
mountains break blue sky.
Grey cloud islands
grace air's sea.
Fainter clouds rise,
fly
High from the south.
Blue gums sway.
Black crows ride
cold wind.
Clouds drift by. No
storm. No rain.
Grey deserts late
sky of day.
Early swallow
gliding
on late-winter wind
begins
auguries of spring.
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