Looking back through the archives yesterday I realised it was 4 years since my poem Heads in the clouds was published in the Australian Education Union Journal. Prior to that it was only the second poem of mine to be published in an anthology. (UNO, ed. Verian Thomas.) I still get a kick out of having work selected for a collection. It’s an affirmation that someone else appreciates something you’re trying to say and values the way it’s expressed. (Note that, apart from the oblique biblical reference, the school next-door to my State school is a catholic school, Emmaus, which always gets our weather a few seconds later!)

Heads in the clouds

( the road to Emmaus )

 

Children’s souls are sympathetic to the Elements..

 

A windy day

 fractious, hyperactive

  niggly.

   Like birds before a storm.

 

After lunch

 The wispy bank of clouds from the Gulf

  blows across the Ranges

   over the mortgaged houses..

 

The skylight frames

 a corner

  of sky.

 

As the pushingshoving gaggle explodes into the room..

 

LOOK!

 A five year old voice thrills.

 

Smokelike, wispingtrails

 Overhead Teutonic Window

  Wind’s eye

  Virtual Reality screen

 

They lie on wrigglingbacks and watch in wondering awe as trails of vapour     dissipate against a square of blue in theceiling

 While i improvise on Emin7 and Amin7 andcall it  Music for Watching       Clouds By.

 

The guitar finishes.

 

Silence.

 

Infants mesmerised.

 

Becalmed.

 

i join them on their backs on the carpet

 watching the exhiliration of the Commonplace

  through their unwearied eyes.