POEMS OF THE LAUREATE CANDIDATES: Patience Wheatley, Joanne Page (more to come)

Patience Wheatley (From: A Hinge Of Spring)

A Hinge Of Spring

A blazing bird melted a twig’s
white cover-then there’s another
what can a cardinal want with winter
warming the snow and rock-grey grass?

cold binoculars fog over
I rub and the birds jump huge in the centre
of the round theatre below my birdfeeder

the red male observes the armoured pigeons
khaki sparrows, spike-furred squirrels

and swivels a princely black cat’s face
and quitely drops in the trodden circle
stands refulgent and splendid

startling the ruck he makes this country
in crimson majesty blesses our garden
and hinges spring open

Joanne Page (From Watermarks)

The Canon

The literature of snow is simple enough for fools
Like most its origin is oral, flake to flake you
might say. Largely Os and Us, its books have
a certain sameness making interpretation a matter
of conjecture. Authority of authorship has a similar
shifting nature blowing, as it were, in the wind.
Historical texts include those on Sugaring Off
in the Maple Bush and Home of the Penguin.
Tomes on Siberia have been withdrawn whereas
the permafrost set will soon be remaindered.