Three Fine Poems by Oonah V. Joslin

 

The White Stag at Blackrocks

 

The white stag stands

two dimensional

between land and sea, sea and sky,

air and rock.

 

Whoever placed him there

'twixt myth and reality,

understood those boundaries

to which we must adhere,

 

taboos, thresholds

not to be crossed,

portals past that seamless, disappear

protecting everything the modern world has shed.

 

But on some moonless night, unseen he turns,

skips lightly through a crevice in black rock,

to dance with myths and legends and return

at first light to the sight of mortal men.

 

The white stag placed here just beyond our reach

for us to yearn for and to learn

the light and darkness

mysteries may teach.

 

 

Storm in a Churchyard

 

This storm will pass.

I know alas

other storms will blow again

blattering loud and quaking deeper

like a freight train past the window

wakening the frighted sleeper.

 

This storm too shall pass,

its wind withering away,

its name eroded by time and forgotten.

But trees once felled,

their wood chipped and rotten,

will not grow again

 

This storm has split both root and stone.

Nothing remains where the grave yawns,

where the dead once rested peaceably underground.

The weather of the world goes raging on.

They grow no colder, hear no sound,

they fear no storm.

 

Linear City

 

ancient life turned to geology

in constant flux of reconfiguration

 

out of the strata a city emerged

slate, granite, shale

 

wrought of precious metals

titanium, copper, lead,

 

banded minerals

silicates, feldspar, vermiculite

 

from rare Earth elements

it drew its power

 

the metamorphic aggregates of time

igneous, sedimentary

 

the city borrowed shadows of the sun

stole reflections of the moon

 

defied entropy

until time’s full circle returned it

 

to the Earth

Oonah V Joslin was born in N. Ireland. Her first poetry was published in the school magazine. Teaching took over but she never stopped writing. For the past 15 years she has accumulated an online body of work which includes Flash Fiction from MicroHorror to humour, a Novella, 'Genie in a Jam' in Bewildering Stories and a her book 'Three Pounds of Cells' published by The Linnet's Wings Press. Oonah served as poetry editor at Every Day Poets and until recently, at The Linnet's Wings for a total of 12 years. You can see Oonah reading Almost on Brantwood Jetty, from her book, aboard The Steam Yacht Gondola in a National Trust video and follow her on Facebook.