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....


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