Poem: Patterns in Sand
This week’s Poet’s Corner contributions from Bev Hedgman go from Adelaide’s beaches to its back streets.
Patterns in Sand
I stood on the pier and watched
There below as a man
Developed a pattern in sand.
Patterns, of circles, of hoops
And occasional loops,
With the rake in his hand.
I watched as there grew
‘Neath the tines on the rake
Guided by hands
And his fast stepping feet
An intricate pattern.
I stood there transfixed.
But the tide it was turning
I could see it would take
That intricate pattern
The man did just make.
A wave, it swept over
In a flurry of foam.
With the rake in his hand,
He turned and went home.
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Back Street in Adelaide
Back streets,
Narrow, dark, shadowed.
Crowded, crumbling houses,
Unloved, unkempt.
Verandahs, covered
In broken furniture, old treasures, garbage
Waiting for the council truck
To collect.
Ignominious end.
Gardens, roses blooming bravely
In warm winter sunshine.
Pink, yellow, red, perfumed,
Neglected,
Thorny, rampant, old.
Once cared for, loved,
Brightening shadowed back streets
And small crumbling houses.
Indestructible friends.
Bev Hedgman, originally from New Zealand, lives in the Adelaide Hills. There she enjoys walking with dog Harry and is a member of Hill Poets, whose second anthology Through the Tunnel was reviewed in InDaily. She also runs a writing group at the Norton Summit Community Centre and has enjoyed poetry over a lifetime, being introduced to it by one of those “special teachers”.