The Characters

a comfort to think

that in Nagano where

typewriters used to be made

they still remember

Bashō’s visit and the long-

expired snow he came to view

each snow flake

then as now unique each

fluent stroke of the brush

comprehensible but singular

© Tony Beyer from Anchor Stone

Tony Beyer was born and grew up in Auckland, and now lives in Taranaki after a career as a secondary school teacher in several parts of the North Island. His seventeen poetry titles include Jesus Hobo (Caveman Press, 1971), The Singing Ground (The Caxton Press, 1986), The Century (HeadworX, 1998), Electric Yachts (Puriri Press, 2003), Dream Boat: selected poems (HeadworX, 2007) and Anchor Stone (Cold Hub Press, 2017). His work has been widely published, anthologised and reviewed in New Zealand and elsewhere.