Octopus (April)

Wye River, year in year out, pleasure of the tangible, the intensely visible. Sun rises this April to burnt-down hills, stripes of damaged trees. Fire opens up the intangible, reminds us of invisible life, old paths and fossils. Skyline’s no longer treetops but their bases. Air flows where canopy, understorey, and ground cover vied for light. Wye River, waves in and out, measure of tidal force, oversees invisible commonwealths. We know the octopus is out there, not that we’ve never seen them, furling unfurling. Once or twice we’ve seen whales surface, or was it just changing weather and white caps?

Octopus (October)

At Melbourne University I studied Anglo-Saxon, including the aenigma (Latin) or riddles (English) in the Exeter Book. It was formative. These charming mnemonics describe something without naming it, the principle self-evident. After October 1976 I started making up riddles of my own, including this early example in, understandably, eight lines: “His eyes see a thousand nights, / His numerous flesh shifts shades. / His paths make rubbery figures, / His clouds are fluid departure. / His progress is slopping cartwheels, / His form an animate bagpipes. / His coat of arms wrap water, / His sky is flocked with hulls.”