Bark World

I came across this poem in the New Statesman - a magazine I subscribe to and which I love - and around the beauty of the words of Olivia Byard's poem "Bark World" I create my own picture to accompany them. Australia's nature is one which requires careful consideration and casual observation. Barks as thin as chiffon, scaled like crocodiles,  grey as silver sheets or glaringly orange come out to accost you on walks. Here they are settled among her words.

 

Bark World
Olivia Byard

Rough, tough to touch,
grovved ridged and scaled
        textures and fissures
teeming with the fuss and
stress of being -
        dark crevices
crammed with mini beasts
- woodlice, beetles, borers -
and whispy spiders, that scurry
across burled highways -
          algae
lichen moss growing warmth, cover
over tiny birds tight in dark holes,
feather to feather, beak to beak
- a claw here, an eye there-
flutter, shuffle, first squawks
and squeaks-
          and the deep inside
where sap rises rich and quick,
grains, circles, lines,
the yearly marks of tell - time -
                                old time,
now time, pest, blight, disease time,
                                                                                    warming time, losing time,
                                                                                    a stopped clock at felled time.