Week 11, 2009

SCREECH TREE
by Lorraine Marwood

This is the morning doorway
skyway
screeching.

Cockatoos landing, dip
yellow crowns and beak speak.
Cockatoos leaving, dip
white breast coats and beat feet.

A whole river reflection
from tree so many centuries high,
as cockatoos bustle
the same unbroken hustle.
As eyes like water jewels
preen the comings
and goings from SCREECH TREE!

Lorraine says: We were in a caravan park with lots of very old gum trees, and a little stream nearby. At sunrise the cockatoos would screech away, then at dusk they would fly home to roost in the hollows of tall tree trunks. What a glorious noise they made as they flew out, then flew in again. A cockatoo is such an iconic Australian bird, I just had to write it a poem! I sat near those trees and wrote the first draft. Screech Tree identifies the most striking feature of the Cockatoo- its noise.

Lorraine loves writing poetry. Her latest book 'Star Jumps' is written in prose poetry (published by Walker Books). She believes poetry both cuts to the essence of a story or emotion, yet at the same time provides layer after layer of surprise and sensory detail. Her website is www.lorrainemarwood.com

Write your own sound poem: What do you hear every day? Have you ever stopped to listen to each and every sound? Try closing your eyes and identifying each sound, which one is close, which one is far away. Do you know what every sound is? Which one resonates with you the most? Write a poem about it.