Lost Summer

A late grasshopper
has strayed into another universe,
nothing he is programmed for
is here, the sun
is not where it should be,
the cooler air
is hard to breathe,
his flight is urgent but aimless,
he crash-lands everywhere.
He finally makes it to the open sky,
     a swarm of one
in search of the lost summer.

Leonard Lambert
from Slow Fires: New Poems, Cold Hub Press, 2024

“I’ve begun to think of short poems as being the literary equivalent of the small house movement. Small houses contain the same essential spaces as large houses do. Both have places in which to eat, sleep, bathe and sit; the difference being that small houses are, well, smaller. Like the question of bathrooms- does one need six stanzas or will one do? What short poems might lack in floor space they make up for in nifty storage. You might have to go outside to swing the cat, but you can still have the thought indoors.”

Jenny Bornholdt
from ‘Introduction’, Short Poems of New Zealand, Te Waka University Press, 2018

New books in my letterbox

Wild Wild Women, Janis Freegard, At the Bay, 2024
The End of the beginning, Jenna Heller, At the Bay, 2024
anthology (n.) a collection of flowers, Gail Ingram, Pūkeko Publications, 2024
The Mires, Tina Makereti, Ultimo Press, 2024

Weekly links

Monday Poem: ‘Disaster Escapism’ by Hebe Kearney

Tuesday: Fox Spirit on a Distant Cloud by Lee Murray feature

Wednesday: Ash by Louise Wallace review

Friday: 5 Questions – Dani Yourukova

Poetry Box: Brown Bird by Jane Arthur feature

I am gifting a copy of Ash by Louise Wallace to Claire Louise