Robyn Mathison

My hens give advice on poetry

The world is full of cruelty and beauty:
a full moon rising gold above the river,
star travel through the cold night sky,
frost on grass blade and chook claw,
leaves winking in wing-stretch morning sun.

Take your poems out into the garden,
think and speak them, try to hum them.
Pick some seed heads, dig some mulch in,
nip back a tendril of rampant creeper.
Stop and think your poems through again.

Your poems should strike the heart
with terror and with beauty.
As you settle down to write them
stop and ask yourself: Are they
fox-coloured? Do they sing? 

from the 2009 collection To Be Eaten By Mice
published by Ginninderra Press, Port Adelaide
http://www.ginninderrapress.com.au/

My hens give advice on poetry posted with permission of the poet: Robyn Mathison

Inquisitive Hens

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigbold/19794236/