Shards - The 1 Poem Podcast of Cameron Semmens

Shards - The 1 Poem Podcast of Cameron Semmens

By Cameron SemmensArts
Download on the App Store

Shards - The 1 Poem Podcast of Cameron Semmens episodes

  • Shards - 16 - Trees And The Taste Of Shadow
    Trees and The Taste of Shadow
    When a tree falls
    how can its shadow stand?
    And yet
    in the forest behind our eyes
    shadows stretch
    far into the future.
    Even when
    the tree has long since fallen
    and rotted and returned
    to the fecund, hungry soil of history;
    even when
    the sun, with its golden tongue,
    is licking the ridges of mountains
    memories are longer than shadows.
    And the taste of darkness
    is a sharp, metallic tang
    that can,
    with enough swings,
    cut right through
    the most deep-rooted loves
    and thick-trunked family.
    In shadow,
    bare dirt
    pushes back the greener grass.
    In shadow,
    consoling moss softens the edges.
    But what does this mean
    for the forest behind our eyes?
    You tell me for once!
    I’m sick of walking these paths,
    pulling answers from trees
    like cicada shells.
    Tell me –
    this shadow
    these trees
    what does it all mean?
    4 min
  • Shards - 15 - The Fern Cycle
    Today
    I take my hunchbacked heart
    for a walk
    in cathedrals of trees.
    And each step
    off-road, off-grid, on dirt,
    returns me
    to an earlier me –
    to a memory of milk teeth smiles
    and always look up.
    And with each step,
    on this day
    (I wish it always felt like this),
    my thoughts
    become more like dragonflies;
    and my muscles
    more like winter bees;
    and slowly
    the skin of my civilised self
    hardens and sheds
    – a cicada shell;
    and suddenly,
    from the outside,
    I can see the useless husk it was –
    so fragile and constrictive.
    And as I keep walking
    further into the forest
    all my straight lines
    begin to warp and twist like wattle branches;
    and all my black-and-whites
    are softened into shades of green;
    and all my human grandness
    shrivels and cowers
    beneath a towering grove
    of mountain ashes.
    Fecund,
    meandering,
    I grow into my youth
    like a tree
    re-entering the seed.
    I am simpled;
    trimmed back
    to a beautiful
    potential.
    I know,
    in many ways,
    this cannot last;
    but
    I also know
    this moment is growing roots;
    this moment is digging in deep;
    this moment is going to
    sprout words
    and flower into poetry –
    I can see
    the lines, like leaves,
    already forming:
    Today
    I take my hunchbacked heart
    for a walk
    in cathedrals of trees...
    4 min

About Shards - The 1 Poem Podcast of Cameron Semmens

From the publisher's feed

Welcome to Shards – a glinting fragment of transparent truth to flash in your mind's eye or cut you open. Irregularly, a fresh poem – a poetic pause in your day to make you think or smile or be…

More shows like Shards - The 1 Poem Podcast of Cameron Semmens

Learning English Conversations by BBC Radio

Learning English Conversations

1,031 Listeners