Alpine Flower a Day: Day 13, Scarlet Snowberry (Gaultheria crassa) – a little bush about 50cm high with these gorgeous flowers that turn to scarlet berries in autumn – late December, Dobson Track Arthurs Pass the small disappointments of a writer-editor dear reader, my brain is dead, I want to write about Scarlet, but I've read 400 poems in the last two days. that's about eight books of rhythmic, mythical, lyrical, fantastic poems about tides, birds dying, a drawing of a dead

Alpine Flower a Day: Day 12, Hatch's Sun Orchid (Thelymitra hatchii) – about 6cm tall, flower about 1.5 cm wide – Jan 2020 1000-acre plateau, Kahurangi National Park Note that thelymitra apparently derives from Ancient Greek – thelys for 'woman' and mitra for 'hat'! Woman's hat to be or to be outstanding? have or not have a protector? elephants have detective skin little penguins sport a closed thatch yellow babies need no curtain my babies will not be yeller i

Alpine Flower a Day: Day 11, Korokia (Corokia cotoneaster) – the bush grows up to 3m, flowers about 1cm – on the Banks Track overlooking Akaroa Harbour This one is for my friend Brian since it's his birthday today - happy birthday, Brian! A korokia for Brian on his birthday because he's a sailor and look at the way this one sails off into the distance hunkers down rides the wind-flows clings to the shelter of the log the precious log for recording the weather

Alpine Flower a Day: Day. 10, New Zealand Everlastingflower (Anaphalioides bellidioides) – same size as a garden daisy but dry and papery, and found on alpine slopes! – these ones in Arthurs Pass National Park on the side of the Bealey Track Here's an excerpt and bastardisation of a poem from the flora collection I'm working on! What the everlasting daisies know banks run rivulets at our feet, our petals open, dry as eyelashes, to catch the moth at moon Maero appears as a fai

Alpine Flower a Day: Day 9, Southern Rata (Metrosideros umbellata) – the South Island Christmas tree, and the name of my daughter! And my poem today is an oldie but a goodie! Daughter Seed child bathed in my blood, my cotyledon heart opening and close like the worm that only just fits sliding perpendicular to the light and squeeze we did you and I for your head has bloomed, the world now your cradling hand. first published Poetry New Zealand 2013 If you're interested in the i

Alpine Flower a Day: Day 8, Mount Cook Buttercup (Ranunculus lyallii) – world's largest buttercup, the size of a rose - spectacular alpine flower in our South Island National Parks – taken late Dec 2019 Dobson Walk, Arthur's Pass National Park Lesley’s painting The mountains are pale white fingers against a gold-blue sky. There’s darkness but no dark elbows of birds in flight. There are green daubs of vegetation, wavy, yes, but no green tracks angling to a haystack horizon. T

Alpine Flower a Day: Day 7: Pale White Fingers (Caladenia Nothofageti) (note I may not have the identification of this orchid right!) – the flower is maybe one centimetre across - delicate little plant in the moss – Dec 2019 Arthurs Pass National Park They is Gender Diverse Orchid (Caladenia Nothofageti) This is what they knows: They can be confused with Lily, who lives in the vicinity. They is prized for their elegance, but they is uncomfortable with the praise. They has dis

Alpine Flower a Day: Day 6, Mountain Astelia (Astelia nervosa) – flowerhead are about the size of a bunch of grapes, though the seed pods/florets are smaller than a grape – found late December, along the Arthur's Pass Track, Arthur's Pass National Park On old throats I hold no grudges when my voice drops my notes are sluggish while young poets inaugurate and new faces replace thugs there's a song less showy a mountain wonder of frumpy shining for those who look If you're inte

Alpine Flower a Day: Day Five, Spoon-leaved Sundew (Drosera spathulata) – each tiny flower about 5mm across – Jan 2021, near tarns, on the 1000 acre plateau, Kahurangi National Park Here, I am on a writer's retreat in a gorgeous spot half-way up the hill in Little River – so this poem is hot off the page, written as an ekphrastic poem, using a photo from my recent tramp in Kahurangi. Alien Coronavirus-like, with their tiny round spoons and hairs reaching out like sun-rays cat

Flower a Day: Day 4, Māori onion (Bulbinella hookeri) – about a metre high – taken near Granity Pass Hut, Mt Owen, Kahurangi National Park Writer's Rock Māori Onion (Bulbinella hookeri) I see a flattened path, Maybe the girl. I whisper, Are you here? I wind through the yellow flowers growing along some unseen underground stream, stems so bright, so tall in the muted landscape. Are they penwipers? I laugh, I will find you, wiping my pen as I go. I swish through, catching the