Memory is a feather

I close my eyes and see a flock of birds
                    – Jorge Luis Borges

fickle, uneasy, a lingering

    echo, this pattern of dark & light

       assured in its natural insistence, yet

          transient,  like the sounding of bells

            hovering, weightless on the wind

         evoking nothing, maybe a prayer

      resisting   haunting   waiting

Michelle Elvy

Borges: from ‘Argumentum Ornithologicum’, in Dreamtigers (1964)

This work is from ‘The Wild Edge’, an installation of poems, notes and photographs created during Michelle’s 2025 Auckland Regional Parks residency immersed in the wilderness of the Waitākere Ranges Regional Park. The exhibit reflects proximity to the sea, observations of landscapes and seascapes, and intersections of experience between humans and our environment. This new poem was in’The Wild Edge’ exhibit at Arataki. The exhibit ran through 31 March.

Michelle Elvy is a writer, editor and creative writing teacher in Ōtepoti Dunedin. She edits at Flash Frontier and At the Bay | I te Kokoru. Her books are the everrumble and the other side of better, and in 2025 she co-edited Te Moana o Reo | Ocean of Languages (The Cuba Press)and Poto: Iti te kupu, nui te kōrero| Short: The big book of small stories (Massey University Press). In 2025 she held the Riddell Residency in Oturehua and the Auckland Regional Parks Residency in Huia. website