The Great Ocean Road

The Great Ocean Road
Chrysophylax

audio: The Great Ocean Road
audio of Cally Conan-Davies's poem, The Great Ocean Road

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The Great Ocean Road

A hot-wired spirit sparking in the rain,
you jolted me to life, unfroze my heart,
and all my tangled currents you'd explain
as if you read my bathymetric chart.
We ran with leaf-shaped boards into the sea,
birds wheeling, wave noise tossing up white spray;
I dived, holding your breath, and learnt to breathe
on southern coasts where fire and water play.

Your face, creased like a map of what we've seen,
the reefs and tree ferns, lines of glassy waves,
is proof the outside world reflects within
and sculpts our ends as green seas carve out caves.

Sometimes at dusk the humpbacked ocean slows,
and even thoughts like these have undertows.

Cally, I was knocked out by

Janet Kenny's picture

Cally,
I was knocked out by the freshness and wisdom of your poem. And, it's beautiful too.

Janet

wow!

Mary Meriam's picture

"When reacting to a poem, the word 'perfect' is inadequate for the same reason that the word 'wow' would be. But it isn't inadequate because it says nothing. It is inadequate because it is trying to say everything." (Clive James on Stephen Edgar)

Wow, Cally! Your poem has everything, and your reading is wonderful.