Writing 201: Landscape – found poetry – enumeratio

“Photo by DAVID ILIFF. License: CC-BY-SA 3.0”

Ha ha how funny is that. Found poetry the form and I do believe this is what I did several days ago for Day 6. With my poem ‘who’s that girl‘ I used song titles and lyrics from various albums by Eurythmics and Annie Lennox (did you pick it) and didn’t even realise that this was a form of poetry :-).

Not sure how successful I have been with this one but I have taken, mingled and possibly mangled the essay “An Ark of Flowers” from the book cited below.

I am Gariwerd

Floral wonderland
1000 species; indigenous flowering plants
26 only here to be found
limits of the Great Dividing Range

land forms, climate and soils
allow life here to cling
cradle of the ark
of our Gariwerd

50 million years ‘fore now
tropical rainforest reign
before Gondwana broke it’s bough
send India, South America and Madagascar with Africa north

35 millions years ‘fore now
with Antartica it rift
Cold circumpolar currents plough
climate getting cooler and more arid; leaching out nutrients

mountain refuge
niches for match-making
winter water deluge
our damp and misty Gariwerd

Tramping trapdoor tops
glorious panoramic landscape
stunted Grampians Gum drops
thick, leathery leaves

Lemon brushes of Banksia
Snow white Grampians fringe-myrtle
endemic Grampians Grevillia
I am Gariwerd*

*Gariwerd is the indigenous name for, what we white fellas in Australia, refer to as the Grampians – Gar meaning nose and werd meaning shoulder. The steep cliff (nose) faces east and the back slope (shoulder) dips ‘gently to the west’. For the Djab wurrung and the Jardwagjali people it ‘literally’ means mountain range made of our gods’ – from the book ‘Gariwerd – reflecting on the Grampians’ words by Gib Wettenhall & photos by my dear friend Alison Pouliot.