Choka published in Quadrant
The March 2009 issue of Quadrant magazine contains 4 of Andrew’s poems, including the following choka (a traditional Japanese poetic form):
Western Yellow Robin
When the Almighty
spoke yellow-bellied robins
into bright being
and told them to multiply,
he already knew
I would observe this robin,
this gentle-grey bird
too shy to wear its colour
on its petite breast,
this yolk-yellow-under bird
drawn from the forest
by the feather-grey and -fine
smoke of my campfire—
and he also foreknew that
I would by virtue
of his implanted image
want to celebrate
and recreate this bird by
speaking it into a poem.
© Andrew Lansdown
Recent Posts