Poet Laureate’s Choice, August 2021 | Anne Kennedy

Poet Laureate’s choice, August 2021

The Poet Laureate's Choice, August 2021 is a portfolio sequence of new poems from poets chosen by the Poet Laureate. Today two new poems from Anne Kennedy.


Sea-glass

Oh and once he cut his finger doing handstands
in the sand at Waimānalo. Some arsehole’s bottle,

still raw. I wasn’t there. Swim `ohana delivered him
to the door, his young blood pumping into a towel.

Next we’re all at ER in a delegation. Anaesthetic
doesn’t work. Because redhead, they say, and stitch him

anyway, and try distract - Ah you ginga! Later a surgeon,
calm as the Buddha, sews his nerve, the width of a hair.

A year of therapy, a brace, a box of tumbling wheat
teaching the finger not to curl, and no over-extend either.

At the very end he says, When I first did it, Mum, it was
so sore! My heart still thumps at his pain on the beach. 

Now down in Auckland working in a bar, he makes
cocktails so so fast, like a blur, in a frosted glass.

Anne Kennedy


Big in the Landscape

First you were small. Small was an adorable stage.
Your little body and the little space it took up.

But the bones and skin grew bigger.
Bones and skin expanded until they were big.
The blood and muscle, the sinews.

You got big in the landscape.

We are big in the landscape.

*

Then our memories got bigger.
They started off small like our bodies.
That was actually an adorable stage.

But memories of where we had been, what we had done,
they gathered and swelled and attached
and kept gathering and swelling and attaching.
They grew bigger than our bodies.

Memories are us. They are enormous.
They are big in the landscape.

We are big in the landscape.

*

You remember the school.
You got so big that the primary school looked wee. We are so big the primary school looks
wee. We say to each other, Oh my, the school has shrunk!

We are big in the playground.

We are big in the landscape.

*

You remember a holiday.

The motorway exploded behind us. We were big in the back of the car. We walked on a
glacier. It was big and we were dots on the landscape. Now the glacier looks wee. We say to
each other, The glacier has shrunk.

We were big on the motorway, we were big in the car, we were big on the glacier.

We are big in the landscape.

*

You moved from the place your little body had been, and from the place where your little
memories had been. You went on a plane and exhaust blasted into the sky. You were
plastered against your seat. You saw new things. You went back and forth and back and forth
from the new place to the old place.

You were big in the sky, you were big in your seat, you were big in the new place, you were
big going back and forth and back and forth from the new place to the old place.

We are big in the landscape.

*

There were trips to the mall. You drove to the mall. You bought things at the mall. T-shirts, children’s plastic shoes, synthetic duvet inners. You say, Look what I bought.

You were big in the mall, you were big in the car, you were big in the T-shirt, the children
were big in their plastic shoes, we were big under our duvets.

We are big in the landscape.

                                    *

There were work trips. You went on a plane and exhaust blasted into the sky. You were
plastered against your seat. You flew up and down and up and down. You thought about new
ideas. You say, Look what I thought.

You were big on the plane, you were big in your seat, you were big flying up and down and
up and down, you were big thinking about new ideas.

We are big in the landscape.

*

There was a move to another country. We went on a plane and exhaust blasted into the sky.
We were plastered against our seat. We saw new things. We met new people. We went back
and forth and back and forth from the new place to the old place. We said, The new place!

We were big in the sky, we were big in our seat, we were big seeing new things, we were big
meeting new people, we were big going back and forth and back and forth from the new
place to the old place.

We are big in the landscape.

*

You put out the wheelie bin of recycling. The plastics, the cans, the cardboard and the glass,
they jostle like Christmas. You are full of joy.

You are big with the wheelie bin, you are big with the plastics, the cans, the cardboard and
the glass, the way they jostle like Christmas, you are big with joy.

We are big in the landscape.

*

There are books about climate change that you read sitting on the couch. You quote bits from
the books to your loved ones. You are so interested in books about climate change.

You are big reading books about climate change, you are big quoting bits from books on
climate change to your loved ones, you are big feeling so interested in books about climate
change.

We are big in the landscape.

*

There were the hurricanes on the other side of the world. We were an audience to the
hurricanes. There was the orange sky from Australian bush fires that January day. We were
entertained by the hurricanes. We watched the marvel of the orange sky. We said to each
other, Oh my, look at the sky!

We were big on the internet, we were big on the radio, we were big on the TV, we were big
hearing about the hurricanes on the other side of the world, we were big looking at the orange
sky in January, we were big talking to each other about the orange sky.

We are big in the landscape.

*

We love our bodies. We love our memories. Our memories are enormous. Memories are us.

*

But the thing is the thing.

We think we are big in the landscape and so we are big in the landscape.

You know why the glacier is wee. Because it has melted.
You are not big you are small.
Our memories are not big they are invisible.

We are at an adorable stage.

Anne Kennedy


Anne Kennedy biography

Anne Kennedy is an Auckland poet, fiction writer, screenplay editor and teacher. Recent books are the poetry collection Moth Hour (AUP) and the novel The Ice Shelf (VUP). Awards and fellowships include the NZ Post Book Award for Poetry and the IIML Writers' Residency. Her new poetry collection The Sea Walks into a Wall is forthcoming from Auckland University Press in October. 

Anne Kennedy. Image by Robert Cross. 


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