Allan Lake is a migrant poet from Allover, Canada who now lives in Allover, Australia. Coincidence. His latest chapbook of poems, entitled ‘My Photos of Sicily’, was published by Ginninderra Press. It contains no photos, only poems.
Swore I wouldn’t but here I am again.
Not dragooned or drugged but caught
off-guard, in good humour, post amorous
afternoon on a wintry Melbourne day
by my beloved Siciliana, against whom
I have limited defences, do love to please.
It’s only April here in sunny Sicily but
it’s warmer than dour Melbourne and
the sometime moody Tyrrenhian Sea
is in turquoise mode today. If I saw this
scene on a screen I’d assume the colour
was enhanced. Impossibly turquoise!
As I look toward Aeolian Islands there
is a white popcorn cloud above each
in an otherwise perfect blue sky.
Where blue and turquoise meet, one
solitary while sail is almost too poetic
but there it seems to sit. Some equally
still poet might try to capture this idyll,
this perfect postcard, then submit
the confection to a poetry journal
to a cold country because that’s
the unkind of thing they do.
Idle poets, like islands, take
whatever comes, cannot
control themselves.
For other contributions by Allan Lake, please follow the links below:
Poetry in this post: © Allan Lake
Published with the permission of Allan Lake