I Home I About I Contact I Guidelines I Directory I World I Peace I Charity I Education I Quotes I Solutions I Photo Gallery I Archives I Links I

Thylazine: The Australian Journal of Arts, Ethics & Literature                                                                                                                               #10/thyla10k-jbb AUSTRALIAN POETS SERIES 10 The Poetry of Janice Bostok Selected by Coral Hull [Above] Photo of Janice Bostok by Bruce Divine, 1995. I EARLY AUTUMN I RONDAVEL I SLIPPER ORCHID I LEAVING THE FOREST I THE REINCARNATION OF A BIRD LOVER I TOTAL RECALL I EARLY AUTUMN the sky thin grey distant night thunder now passed territorial birds hold the morning together the sun is strengthened with the splash of wings their voices giving the only reliable promise to another day Published in Fresh (New Zealand). RONDAVEL the landscape drops away on all sides to the east the sea sprints towards sandy beaches in long slithering strides to the north banana plantations murmur their inaudible messages to the wind to the south cane fields sway in unison above valley floors as though each stalk was of the same mind and the same body midsummer the sun's yellow negates the rich darkness of greens everywhere i choose to walk westward where from here to the rising foothills just one massive moreton bay fig holds the paddock together its roots as large as fallen logs stretching in every direction a giant landlocked octopus petrified wood for one hundred years or more the grass is full sweet sighing as an inland sea our old red cattle dog pokes her nose into fresh grass snorts as the green rumps of rosellas rise up you and i have been here in earlier times when the grass was ripe whispering as we approached the ferns parting to give us way when wind through distant tree tops was sharp and pitch-perfect as an orchestra's violin section when evening light lingered on loathe to leave your face and when darkness descended enclosing us in the swell of grass lover ripe until from above the sway was full sweet sighing as an inland sea Published in Famous Reporter (Australia). SLIPPER ORCHID your slipper orchid lives on brought home when your house was sold it settled in fractured sunlight on my back patio away from the draft of the open garage high on a corner shelf unassuming in blossom yellow green mottled as morning light how like your nature to want an exotic plant choosing one whose flower is the colour of spring growth not the red/orange/purple/mauve of tropic islands but demur sensible another lesson to be learned after your death Published in Stylus (Australia). LEAVING THE FOREST the whisper of dusk sweeps like the skirt of a distant mountain meets the dark equally on trails and rocky outcrops breathing peppered lights through trees pulsating in firm breezes before the emptiness came upon me silent as rain on a window into a long-ago time before the curlew cried in the night and ravens darkened the day with wings of ragged silk huge beaks tore memories like flesh from the back of my carcass the picked bones dry and brittle in the white-heat of desert Published in PixelPapers (Australia). THE REINCARNATION OF A BIRD LOVER if we could only weave all the aspects of our lives into one secure nest as the weaver bird does would we be more successful more happily fulfilled i am the eccentric old woman knitting booties that no child wears embroidering delicate garments no longer worn by this generation's children and which they are no longer proud to have for good-wear i have become as incontinent as a plump rat leaving watery droppings everywhere i go drops too ugly for tears Which are pure water from the heart crystallised and greatly prized by all for their beauty an exact science which never gets it wrong nature's imprint always of the same design i can sympathise with young weaver birds which the ornithologist tells us from time to time do get it wrong and need to pull the nest apart and begin all over again TOTAL RECALL when told of your death i recall the day you drove me along the coast road a gull lay on the roadway its body crushed and bloody at the sound of our approaching car the head of the bird turned and looked at us About the Poet Janice Bostok Janice M. Bostok was born at Mullumbimby, NSW. Education: schooling at Mullumbimby, BA from University of Queensland. She has been published in many anthologies in Australia, Japan, the USA, England, Canada, Greece, Poland and Romania. In the 1970s she edited and published Tweed. Since then she has edited for Hobo, Paper Wasp, Scope, Yellow Moon, Red Moon (USA) and Stylus ezine. She co-edited The First Australian Haiku Anthology on the HaikuOz website. She also writes. and has published, short stories, non-fiction and general verse. She has given workshops, talks and been guest poet at Poetry Festivals in Australia and New Zealand. At Katikati in New Zealand Janice has had two haiku carved on rocks in a council park. Her latest books are Collected Tanka (PostPressed, 2004) and Two Thirds of Why (Impressed Publishing, 2004).    [Above] Photo of Janice Bostok by Bruce Divine, 1995. I Next I Back I Exit I Thylazine No.10 (September, 2004)