Three of Andrew’s poems have been published in the March 2015 issue of Quadrant. They are “Water for Worship”, “Petals Scattering” and “The Man with the Gun”. The poem “Water for Worship” is a choka (a traditional Japanese poetic form involving alternating lines of 5 and 7 syllables and concluding on two lines of 7 syllables each) and was written after a stay in Osaka, Japan:

 

Water for Worship

Osaka, Japan

 

At Hozen Temple

a stooped Japanese man is

working the handle

of a cast iron pump, which is

spouting water to

a plastic bucket in which

it will be carried,

sloshing, ten paces then poured

in a granite pot

from which it will be scooped with

a tin-cupped ladle

and tossed over a life-size

statue of Fudo,

the god of fire and wisdom,

covered now in moss

sustained by countless dousings

across the decades

from hopeful petitioners

like this very man

who is puffing while pumping

water for worship

as I write where I began

this poem at Hozen Temple.

               © Andrew Lansdown

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The December 2014 issue of Quadrant contains two of Andrew’s poems – “Nijo Castle, Kyoto” and “Japanese Heron”. Each poem consists of three tanka. The third tanka of “Nijo Castle, Kyoto” is subtitled “The Interlocking Stones”:

 

The Interlocking Stones

 

Pieces of fretsaw-

cut plywood reassembled

to form a jigsaw–

that, in their neat interlock,

is the way the wall-stones look.

               © Andrew Lansdown

Andrew’s poem, “Forgetting-grass”, was published in the 3-4 January 2015 issue of The Weekend Australian Review. The same poem, under the simplified (and preferred) title “Forgetting”, is scheduled for publication later this year in the Inkerman & Blunt anthology, Prayers of a Secular World. It is reproduced below:

 

Forgetting-grass

‘I long to pick/ Some forgetting-grass’ –

Ki no Tsurayuki, The Tosa Diary, 935 AD

 

For you I need a different flower,

brother, than the blue forget-me-nots.

 

Oh, here in this world where you left me

I yearn for the sweet forgetting-grass

 

treasured by the ancient Japanese.

I want to search out and gather up

 

those grasses that take away grieving

by somehow infusing forgetting.

 

I want stooks of the stuff, large wigwam

stooks that can be shaken loose and strewn

 

to cover me with stalk, leaf and scent

from the loss of you and how you went.

                    © Andrew Lansdown

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two of Andrew’s poems have been published in the January-February 2015 issue of Quadrant. They are “The Forgetting-Grass Enigma” and “Walking to the Waterfall”. They can be read on the Quadrant website here: http://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2015/01-02/andrew-lansdown-two-poems-4/

The current issue of Australian Poetry Journal (Vol. 4, No. 2, 2014) contains one of Andrew’s poems, “Dove Tanka Triptych”.

“Founded in 2011 and edited by Dr Bronwyn Lea, the Australian Poetry Journal is the flagship publication of peak body Australian Poetry Ltd. It aims to bring contemporary poetry and poetics into the spotlight, publishing the best of Australian poetry across multiple genres and allowing for deep and engaged criticism.” (Quoted from AJP website.)

Andrew’s poem consists of three thematically linked tanka. The third tanka in the triptych is:

 

          3

 

Dove Drinking

 

A sudden flurry

and the dove on the birdbath

is gone, gone into

the paws and jaws of next-door’s

low-hiding high-leaping cat.

 

                    © Andrew Lansdown

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of Andrew’s poems is included in the latest issue of the literary magazine, Westerly (Vol. 59, No. 2, Summer 2014). Andrew wrote the poem, “Missing”, in memory of his brother, David. It is reproduced below:

 

Missing

i.m. David

 

The last time I wrote to my last brother

I lacked the words, so I wrote the words

of The Innocence Mission—wrote them as I recalled them,

enhanced by the singer’s melody and phrasing:

 

                    And I can only say

                    that I had hoped for you

                    safety from fears and darkness.

                    Are you feeling better than before?

 

I got up from the tossing bed

where the thoughts of him missing

and the feelings of missing him

would not let go my heart or leave my head

and I wrote, And I can only say …

and I sent these words into cyberspace

in the faint frail hope they might find him

and in finding impart a form of grace.

 

But I could not send them singing

and I could not send them straight—

and besides it was far, far too late.

In the innocence of despair he was on a mission

to decimate despair—and how was I to know

he had accomplished it already?

 

Oh, save for doubts, I am all unsteady—

yet truly, brother, beyond all saying

 

                    I can only say

                    that I had hoped for you

                    safety from fears and darkness! *

 

I am sorry, sorry I did not send these words to you before,

before you were feeling poorer than before.

 

And now I can only say: Since you have gone to stay

with the sweet Man of Sorrows who is acquainted

with all your grief, I’m glad you must be feeling better,

better, little brother, than even your best before.

But how can I find safety from the fears and darkness,

the tears and starkness, you abandoned at my door?

 

          © Andrew Lansdown

 

* From the song ‘You Are the Light’ by The Innocence Mission on the album Birds of My Neighbourhood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The literary journal, Meanjin, published Andrew’s poem “Departures” in its Summer 2014 (Vol. 73, No. 4) issue. “Departures” is a gunsaku consisting of 4 haiku set in Kyoto during the cherry blossom season.

The Canberra Times newspaper published Andrew’s poem “Prank Call” on 6 September 2014. The poem is reproduced below:

 

Prank Call

 

In my dream I breathed heavily

into the telephone mouthpiece.

 

I was wanting to make a sound,

send a sensation, of menace

 

down the pathways of wire and air

to set the caller’s heart quailing.

 

I breathed heavily in my dream,

lacing each lung-gust with a growl,

 

until I was stopped, mortified,

by a voice wheezy with asthma

 

and love, a voice saying my name.

And as I dreamed I woke I said,

 

‘Oh Mother, Mother, forgive me!’

But she never did, being dead.

                    © Andrew Lansdown

 

 

 

Andrew’s poem “Wren Haiku”, a gunsaku consisting of 4 haiku, has been published in English Workbook 1, written/edited by Anne Mitchell and published by MacMillan Education Australia in 2014. English Workbook 1 is an Australian Curriculum English textbook for Year 7 students.