Winter evening on the Monaro, a Poem by Laurence de B Anderson

Laurence de B Anderson received a Highly Commended prize in the 2015 Michael Thwaites Poetry Award for his poem, Winter evening on the Monaro. Judge, Melinda Smith described it as: “a lyrical, mysterious exploration of landscape and light”. Laurence’s  poem is published below. 

Cloud-light shivers the crow to louvred grey.

Riding the fence,

he sleeks to emerald against a blowing sun

flexing dark shadows down the slopes,

clouds bubbling up from the hills,

didgeridoo navies, each a bruise in its rind of light,

ranked on endless wind.

 

The sun drops to motionless dusk.

Now a moth, you must fall towards the willows

lit gold like dandelions in the dark valleys,

must hover with their soft inverted palisade,

their static pour starring the earth,

while up there on the still-lit edge of time,

the tussocks are rippling in furry waves.

 

Diamond night,

and no whisper.

 

Laurence de B. Anderson is a film-maker, writer and GP who has a farm on the Monaro plain.