The Friday Poem: At The Boatshed by Rhian Gallagher
Photo: Getty Images
A poem by Rhian Gallagher from her new collection Far-Flung.
At the Boatshed
for Sonja Mitchell
We carried the day through the door
the harbour had earned its keep
light laid its hands on each contour
the shed held abreast with the shore
spreading the waves in pleats
we carried the day through the door
tide played a rift to the floor
retreat and return, it was speaking
as light laid its hands on each contour
the reds and the greens and the blues in rapport
lines apart and meeting
we carried the day through the door
time was like something we wore
shedding, left a wide scope in its wake
the day with its openings, the door,
light laying hands on each contour.
Submissions to the Friday Poem are welcome and will be open until the end of September. Please send your poems to chris@christse.co.nz.
Rhian Gallagher
Rhian Gallagher’s first poetry collection Salt Water Creek (Enitharmon Press, 2003) was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for First Collection. In 2008 she received the Janet Frame Literary Trust Award. Her second poetry collection Shift, (Auckland University Press 2011, Enitharmon Press, UK, 2012) won the 2012 New Zealand Post Book Award for Poetry. Rhian was the Robert Burns Fellow in 2018. Her forthcoming poetry collection Far-Flung is being published by AUP in August 2020.
