Hello everyone!
Finally, COZE 2018 in tandem with Curtin University came out! This year’s theme was ‘change’. I attended the magazine launch and it was lots of fun – there’s plenty of young talent there and I’ve really enjoyed reading all the stories. My poem, Forging, stars as the concluding piece. Copies are available from the Curtin Writer’s Club website if you’re interested.
Forging
My heart, my precocious desire
has been carefully set with flyaway twigs.
Now a spark lands, not for love,
but a wish to do the world some good
my well-intentioned idealism
blows gently on the stuttering sparks
sputter, gasp and twinkle I feed these
little fluttering stars with my breath
and cup my hands around
this growing instinct to protect.
Now a glow, a bright, bright burn
to shade out sorrow, flakes fly
up into the sky and they are a wish
forged in a steel-mind.
An impenetrable wall of self-betterment,
it will protect all.
Maths, physics, politics, literature
gradually grow out from the dark.
They will be our beacons. Burn,
become an iron heart: meet hammer,
and do not fear the fire.
All-encompassing,
bright embers bring out your bright hue.
Be unafraid; I have no doubt that
if it had to, it would burn itself out
but this forging is never finished.
It will always
light our land, our sight,
a universal collection,
protection. An unbreakable,
refining, perfectionist piece
getting brighter
with every flyaway twig.
Working with an editor was a fascinating experience for me. My editor really helped strengthen this poem. For example, I struggled with the structure, and it was only after she encouraged me to change it that I decided to make each verse have one more line than the previous – each a tiny bit bigger than the last, it reflects the poem itself, getting bigger with each line; ‘with every flyaway twig’. Now, that’s one of my favourite things about it.
Emily-Oscar Siggs - Writer, Editor 