The Illustrated Rough Spun to Close Weave: the Bunting Tapes

"After sixty years of fairly good work without pay, I haven’t even a house of my own to die in.”  

Bunting, at 79, describing conditions "an honest poet must expect".

The Bunting Tapes

(With thanks to Richard Swigg and Don Share)

A northern voice insists we hold to windward.

So late in the season, sleet on the dark,

clothes sodden, fingers swollen

fumbling familiar tasks

the craft shifts and squirms,

battering a hostile sea.

Tired eyes stare for the journey’s end.

Easier to turn and run with the tide.

Easier to find a safe haven now.

Easier to wait for a favourable wind.

And when is the wind ever right

for the stars you choose to steer by?

From 'Rough Spun to Close Weave', available from Ginninderra press: http://www.ginninderrapress.com.au/poetry.html