Skip to content
Back to issue
From: Vol.09 N.01 – A Poetics of Rights

The sun moved to a supplementary position

by Paul Mitchell

and earth at first denied responsibility
               but when interviewed
                             gave a little ground.
		
The air we breathe, as always,
played to the crowd  
               said controversy was its in and out, and defining clause.

A statement from the ocean: current form was strong
	         but the sun was expected to evaporate
all meaning.		              Nothing

	          about refining positions

just a flood
	         of comments from trees, flowers, fields
and fountains.		           Leaves fell under the spotlight.  	

	         A new report from the sun came in: just block it out:
catch the first wave home, the ocean added.	      Mountains

noted tyre tracks leading from where
the reef had been smelt of cordite
and petrol. 	     Gone cold.
	
The seasons pointed to downward facing, 
             wolves took a stretch	      on behalf of all nature

              until		             those passenger pigeons

	      darkened the nest of microphones
made a single, blink of the iris announcement:

Hail the new sky, clouded 
              in current affairs
 

Published: August 2022
Paul Mitchell

has a PhD in Creative Writing from La Trobe University. He’s the author of six books, including last year’s essay collection Matters of Life and Faith, a novel, We. Are. Family, a short story collection, Dodging the Bull, and three poetry collections: Minorphysics, Awake Despite the Hour, and Standard Variation. Minorphysics won the IP Picks national prize for an unpublished Australian manuscript, and Standard Variation was short-listed for the Adelaide Writers’ Week poetry prize. He’s judged the Victorian Premier’s Award for Poetry and his poems, essays and stories have appeared over the past twenty-five years in numerous magazines and journals, most recently The Guardian, Westerly, Antipodes, Meniscus, and Eureka Street. He’s written several works for stage and he’s currently a co-writer with director Chris Nelius on a commissioned feature film for Madman Entertainment. He also co-wrote a recent AFL documentary on the Brisbane Lions of 2001 to 2003.

An Australian and international
journal of ecopoetry and ecopoetics.

Plumwood Mountain Journal is created on the unceded lands of the Gadigal and Wangal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and to elders past, present and future. We also acknowledge all traditional custodians of the lands this journal reaches.

© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED