Waking by a River of Light
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John Gibb's poems have appeared in New Zealand literary magazines since the 1970s.
Many of the poems in Waking by a River of Light explore lifes puzzles and miracles as light and darkness flicker around the planet, starting and ending each day, in a jerky silent movie rhythm mimicked by the pattern of waking and sleeping. Among several strange encounters, a paradise duck flies from a hayshed roof in the Deep South, with a creaking cry as a city jogger moves past. Thomas Bracken, the prince of misunderstood Dunedin poets, returns to life and leans on a sunny gatepost for a chat. A poem reflecting on an OId English riddle draws readers back more than 1000 years. Travels include a visit to a north German fishing town, once the home of 19th century poet and novella writer Theodor Storm. Elsewhere, friendship is celebrated, and humour edges in as a deceased friend remonstrates with a living alter ego, and life is savoured in a quirky subterranean restaurant. As worlds intermingle, an old house becomes increasingly like a telescope, and in streets filled with snow, silence closes around a solitary runner like the petals of a white flower.
Featured in the 18 December 2017New Zealand / Pasifika Newsletter.
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