Two Poems|Stephen House
built to offer
wherever i stop my wandering
to stay for a stint in another place
be it new room or share house
caravan park or tent site
or in the bush alone away from others
whatever country i’m currently in
i create a sort of shrine or altar
outside my inside sleeping spot
during morning walks and swims
i collect rocks and stones and shells
driftwood and dry sticks and bits and pieces
of natural materials washed up or fallen to ground
as long as they’re not living for i won’t ever kill
and i add the treasures to a pile over a week or so
until i know somehow the structure is complete
standing approximately half the height of me
from then on whether for weeks or months
i worship what i call the Supreme energy
ultimate destroyer of illusion
all that is and was and will always be
what remains when all else has vanished
that within everyone and everything
creator of the environmental elements
through the deity object built to offer thanks
people have watched my constructions form
over many years in countless places
some with curiosity or displeasure
others with interest and delight
and i’ve been questioned and accused
by sceptics and atheists arguing its existence
but i’ve also seen others place offerings
of incense and flowers as i do each dawn
i’m not religious or of any one faith
and many observers have asked of my practise
it is the collection of materials found with love
placed with care and upmost respect
to somehow represent nature and the gift it is
the wonder of each breath and glimpse
and this is my decades approach to worshipping
the Supreme through a created configuration
union
for thirty years wattlebirds have lived
in four sprawling grevilleas
i planted
when i bought a small house
in a big city
my contribution to native birds
i realized over time
through their come and go presence
they swoop and dive
perch and flutter
feed on nectar of flame red flowers
that blossom when they do
he crows complex call at dawn
patient wait
changes rhythm
until she coos soft response
as i lay awake in my dim room
window open wide
absorbed in outside courtship games
and song
they mate and nest
share offspring joy with me
sense i am their friend
they must know i keep prowling danger away
watch me
as i spray hunting cats with water
to say our garden is not for kill
i feel my home has seen many generations
of the same flying family
they show territorial ways
allow some in to share the trees
build on familiar limbs
sing and mimic repeated songs
but how can i know
they are birds and i am man
separated by our species
but together
in our pocket of shared urban nature
on our still surviving planet
as decades soar fast by
a union
of four growing grevilleas
wattlebirds who need them
and me
Photo by pooya ramezani on Unsplash
BIO
Stephen House is an award-winning Australian playwright, poet and actor. He’s won two Awgie Awards (Australian Writer’s Guild), Adelaide Fringe Award, Rhonda Jancovich Poetry Award for Social Justice, Goolwa Poetry Cup, Feast Short Story Prize and more. He’s been shortlisted for Lane Cove Literary Award, Overland’s Fair Australia Fiction Prize, Patrick White Playwright and Queensland Premier Drama Awards, Greenroom best actor Award and more. He’s received Australia Council literature residencies to Ireland and Canada, and an India Asialink. His chapbook “real and unreal” was published by ICOE Press Australia. He is published often and performs his work widely.
One Response to “Two Poems|Stephen House”
Taiwo Oloyede
Sublime and fresh