HOMER TUNNEL
blasted beneath a mountain impasse
homer tunnel swallows travellers
drawn by a milford lodestone
ground fathoms deep in granite
through a glacial imperative
before this southern island suffered
at a previous time of warming
blue as all depression
lamp-lit tunnellers thence burrowed
below stanchions now corroding
leaving nails since to rust in shale
as alpine daisies reclaim these slopes
free to bloom again untended
by any dynamiter's daughter
vagrant druids since have offered
a scatter of cairns beside this path
stonehenge reduced to bonsai
pebbles stacked as haiku
balanced in their homage
to that sheer weight of will
which presses here still
FINE DAY / STORM-FRONT
in this my latest
bedroom
windows face both
rarely one to draw
as a tenant -
waking -
I know a pair
for the price
Rodney Williams has had longer poetry – as well as haiku and tanka – published in various journals, not only in his homeland of Australia, but also in six other countries, especially the United States and New Zealand. His work has previously appeared in Poetry New Zealand, kokako and Valley Micro-press. In 2008 he published the book Rural Dwellings - Gippsland and Beyond, spanning across a range of styles of text, in celebration of the life and work of award-winning artist Otto Boron. A secondary school English teacher in rural Victoria, Rodney regularly leads writing workshops, as well as giving public readings and having his work broadcast on radio.
