Jennifer Compton, "The Topography of Wellington"

Jennifer Compton

The Topography of Wellington

There is a darkness here: and also an itinerant rainbow
strolling like a twister with one lazy finger dipped in water.
There is a harbour: because of the rainbow there may be
a glory, like a saint's halo, which is an optical effect. Glory.

There are six kereru in Orangi-Kaupapa Rd feeding on miro:
or puriru, tawa, tairare. These birds are almost too indolent
to fly, the telephone wires zig-zag under their exiguous feet.
As they pause - in their top heavy survey of topography, let

us consider our understanding of living above. Above contains
below. Look up to the hills and sky, look down the way a river
runs. You are having it both ways now. The sun seeks you out.
In the deep of night before dawn the wind and the rain blow in.

Look down into this glittering city, high on your slippery hill and
shrug. Would they have called it View Rd if it didn't have a view?
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Jennifer Compton was born in NZ in 1949 and now lives in Australia. She is a poet and playwright who also writes prose. Recent work has been published in Takahe, Poetry NZ and Bravado (NZ); Quadrant, Cordite Poetry Review, and Famous Reporter (Australia); Queen's Quarterly (Canada); and Poetry Ireland Review and Poetry London.
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RECONFIGURATIONS: A Journal for Poetics & Poetry / Literature & Culture, http://reconfigurations.blogspot.com/, ISSN: 1938-3592, Volume Three (2009): Immanence/ Imminence
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