Daylight (poem)

Daylight


some days are clearer

you wake up & 
jump off down
to the money machine
& find there is
enough to buy
a new packet of
cigarettes

& you go back
home & open the 
windows & the sun
glares into the room
& a breeze pushes itself
past the window frame & plays
with bits of loose paper
across the polished
wooden floor-boards

& you sit there smoking
listening to your
favourite R.E.M. album

wondering
how life could get
any better


Joanne Fisher

First published in the anthology Voiceprints 2

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©️2022 Joanne Fisher

Lewis Pass (poem)

Lewis Pass


you and I
lying together in the darkness
individually wrapped
in our sleeping bags
the heavy rain
drumming
on the corrugated roof
of our tramping hut
today we stomped over
river flats & paddocks
perhaps
in some alternate dimension
where the stars are lanterns
fixed in the sky by angels &
the sun orbits the Earth
after swapping stories
of past lovers
we reached across the spaces
between our distant bodies
& held on to one another's hands
in the darkness
through the night
the rain falling
you & I
strangers to each other's
touch
the rain exploding
above our heads
& slowly filling
the river beyond


Joanne Fisher

First published in The Christchurch Press

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©️2022 Joanne Fisher

Falling in Love (poem)

Falling in Love


it's those smiles she beams at you
when she serves flat-whites & toasted bagels
that makes you notice her

her face shimmers as if
under the layer of her skin
there is a clear light
making her translucent

eventually you muster the courage
to ask her out fearful
her face might suddenly
succumb to frost

when shes says "Yes!"
your heart detonates

the world opens up into light
as if you so willed it
you could just float away
& walk among pristine white clouds
the tides rising in your heart
you grin like the village idiot

you go out to the movies
& walk home with her
the dark hides you both as you hold hands
as cars race furiously past

then on porch
your arms wrap around each other
as the night enfolds the hills

you hope this will be
a happy ever after


Joanne Fisher

This poem was first published in Catalyst 1

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©️2022 Joanne Fisher

Morning Love (poem)

Morning Love


I can feel summer coming
bursting the flowers open
warming the old bones
of the earth

above a fighter jet sears
a long white scar on an
unblemished cerulean 
sky

this morning we have
scrambled eggs together
a golden yellow on
wholemeal toast
after we had been
through the night
consuming each other

the new light floods
through the windows
reflecting in your burning
sapphire eyes and shimmering
blonde hair

love...

roll that word around
 succinctly in your mouth
for a while

on a morning like this
it tastes so sweet


Joanne Fisher

First published in Spin no.39

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©️2022 Joanne Fisher

Half Past Four (poem)

Half Past Four


two lovers enfolded
at a busy intersection
cars going past, a cafe

in the foreground
oblivious to the rest
of the world watching

them in wonder
except each other
it's like a back & white

photograph you've seen
of two lovers kissing
as monochrome cars

stream past their horizons
it could be Rome, Paris,
or New York, at least

somewhere more exotic
than Christchurch.
Dostoevsky wrote that

beauty will save the world
it's time like this I know
what he means


Joanne Fisher

This poem was first published in JAAM 19.

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©️2022 Joanne Fisher

Starry Night (poem)

Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh

Starry Night


the night sky luminous 
with bright burning stars
the full moon beaming
like a spotlight at me

in the darkness
I gaze upwards
at the pageant above -
lost in wonder


Joanne Fisher

Word count: 30

This was written with the prompt luminous provided by Sammi Cox’s Weekend Writing Prompt #257.

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©️2022 Joanne Fisher

for the revolution (poem)

for the revolution


we inherit nothing
but ashes & empty bones

smog envelops this city
& i am here searching
for remains beneath the grass
once out of winter-dead
slumber

when i walk i feel
the curve of the earth
waiting

for the end of the world
this is a beginning

my hands are clenched

*

we like to think
there is no darkness,
but there is darkness
when i was young
i was scared of this
as it crawled through
the curtains suffocating
cutting like a knife
against bare skin
as sharp as glass

*

this is not a war
i call my own
i walk along the edges
of lines, the polluted 
sea drowns the land

we are on opposing ideals
yet we all walk on the earth's
fractured surface carrying scars
& loss

& when I am
gasping for breath
in my own darkness -
you will not notice


Joanne Fisher

I was going through some old magazines in one of my bookshelves and found a poem of mine I had forgotten about. I must have written this when I was around 21 I think. My younger self didn’t know how to properly edit, so I ended up reworking parts of it. I kept the title, though I think it’s my attempt at being enigmatic… It strikes me as a precursor to my poem Drought Rhythms.

This poem first appeared in Onion, no.2

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©️2022 Joanne Fisher

She is Gone (poem)

She is Gone


She has disappeared
no one has seen her
for a while
"She's not here!" snaps
her angry husband
who slams the door
in our faces

her friends tell us
of bruises
constantly
all over her body
but she would never say
why that was

and now she is gone
a disquiet creeps over
the houses
a silence everyone
can hear


Joanne Fisher

This was an afterthought to the Carrot Ranch Story Challenge which had disappearance as a prompt, though it’s not 99 words.

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©️2022 Joanne Fisher

Trying to do the Right Thing (poem)

Trying to do the Right Thing


she tells me about 
the problems with
her girlfriend, & all
I'm thinking about
how beautiful she is
while trying not to
stray by running my
hand through her
long brown hair &
slowly sliding down
her huddled back as
she smokes cigarettes
& gazes out at the garden
in front of us, instead
I give her advice
that goes against
my own heart


Joanne Fisher

This poem was previously published on this blog in 2019 in a different form.

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©️2022 Joanne Fisher

Listening to Paul Simon’s So Beautiful Or So What (poem)

Listening to Paul Simon's So Beautiful Or So What


like with any new album
you have to decipher it -
carrying it around in your head
until every word, rhythm, and melody
means something to you

when every new phrasing is
aching in your soul, as though
this is another glimpse
of the Universe unfolding
before you 
revealing
yet more secrets
of the whole

helping you make
sense of it all


Joanne Fisher

I finally got round to listening to Paul Simon’s So Beautiful or so What album which was released eleven years ago now. The last decade I’ve been rather poor, so I’ve missed a lot of new music coming out, that was until I realised that all the albums I’ve missed are all on YouTube, so I’m now slowly catching up. I found listening to this album was almost a spiritual experience for me, as though the music was soothing a lot of the hurts and scars I had accumulated over the last ten years in my psyche. Also I love the album cover.

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©️2022 Joanne Fisher