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This Wheel's on Fire (ft. airtone)

uploaded: Fri, Jul 7, 2017 @ 1:58 PM

by	robwalkerpoet
Featuring	airtone
length	3:50
Recommends	Recommends (5)

A kind of a contemporary variation on a sonnet, this poem is about one of Australia’s most beautiful tropical rainforest flowers and is dedicated to an early print-maker Margaret Preston who popularised it. The poem was published in May this year and the entire collection is free to download.
https://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov...." class="cc_format_link" href=" https://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov...."> https://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov....

Thanks again to airtone. I just keep using your work because it’s so good!

Wheels on Fire
Stenocarpus sinuatus

(i. m. Margaret Preston)

Not Dylan’s and not rolling down the road;
A tree of lesser fame.
Banana mini-hands in tropic views
In clusters which explode
To flower-spokes of fire in sunset hues
Which radiate in fireworks of flame!

A passionflower, exotic hanabi
(The Japanese say fire-flowers –
More poetic – fireworks has no soul)
This showy vanity
Saffron/lemon mandala? Parasol?
No. These sparkling inflorescences are ours.

The shriveled flowers are psychedelic spiders
With nectar-seeking parrots rife.
They could be starfish who have lost their way
Or sweets for birds and sugar gliders.

In gaudy tepal radiant display
A dharma spokes-man for the Wheel of Life.

- Rob Walker