Today’s choice
Previous poems
Cindy Botha
a grief of ghosts
atlas bear
black-footed ferret
cape lion
dire wolf
eastern lowland gorilla
foothill frog
galápagos penguin
heath hen
irish elk
japanese otter
kākāpo
laughing owl
maui dolphin
north atlantic right whale
one-stripe opossum
painted vulture
quagga
red-fronted macaw
sumatran elephant
tasmanian devil
upland moa
vaquita
western black rhino
xerces blue butterfly
yangtze porpoise
and no longer
padding the drum
of the earth
zanzibar leopard
Cindy Botha was born and raised in Africa and now lives in New Zealand. Her poems appear in magazines and anthologies in New Zealand, Australia, the UK and USA.
Jasmine Gibbs
This morning – Blackstar,
Bowie, those jazz swan songs
sputtering from the CD player,
wild trumpets that convulse
through negative space
Jane Pearn
the pool holds my face
my breath
ripples the water
Robin Lindsay Wilson
The single crimson rose
she wears in her lapel,
to test his imperfections,
draws him into detail
Ian Hickey
When the half-light drops below the horizon
the birth of darkness comes
Rose Lennard
My mother died seven years ago, but last night
she had a message for me. The mechanics
are irrelevant, what she gave stays with me
Rongili Biswas
Girls under the tree,
one with hands clasped as in worship,
the others picking
the scarlet fallen seeds
Laura Sheahen
What is the ancient curse they know that you don’t
Moving along their mouth-lines and their eyebrows
Lowering their lids, tensing their nods or shrugs
Marilyn Ricci
After his baby son died he strapped
a tumble dryer to his back and ran
the roads around the village.
Wendy Clayton
I’m always thinking about how I can find more human beings.