Poets

Joanna Preston

Joanna Preston was born in Sydney Australia but immigrated to New Zealand in 1994. Joanna joined the Airing Cupboard Women Poet group in 1998 and began writing poets seriously. Joanna is a freelance poet, so she doesn't have exact topics when it comes to writing poems.

Poems from her book 'The Summer King'

Daybreak

From my bed on the back verandah 

white-stippled paddocks reach 

all the way to the mountains. 

Frost has etched the lines 

of cobwebs into the brittle air.

The sway-backed mare drowses 

surrounded by wraiths of breath, 

each long eyelash tipped 

with a bead of moisture – 

its own sliver of sun.

A kookaburra scrapes his beak 

along the low branch 

of the old persimmon. Soon 

he will throttle the stillness, 

and thaw this silver morning.

(The reason why I like this poem because the way she describes simple things turns out so beautiful)

The Pride of Lions

But before we could marry, he became a lion – 

thick pelted, and rich with the musk of beast.

The switch to all fours was not easy – all his weight 

slung from the blades of his shoulders. 

His deltoids knotted like teak burls, 

and I burnished them as he slept.

Burrs matted his mane, and for days 

he wouldn’t let me groom him – 

slapped me away with a suede paw, 

snarled against my throat.

He would not eat fruit, or drink milk, 

but tore meat from the bones I provided.

His claws caught in the carpet, 

so I stripped the rugs from the floor 

and polished the boards until they gleamed 

and rang with the chime of his nails.

I stroke his saffron hide 

and tangle my fingers deep in his ruff, 

draw him up around me, ardent 

as the gleam of his topaz eyes

– the hypnotic lash of his tail, 

the rasp of his tongue on my thighs.

(I don't like this poem that much compared to the other one, but it's still beautiful and still an art.)