Poem: Serendip, a History Lesson

Serendip, a History Lesson

Now is a snapshot of history and we do not know it.

Now, as yesterday, but maybe not tomorrow,

I think of my father’s sayings, like:

‘Magpies are the sound of morning there in the gums

by the creek. Even though it may still be dark

when you hear them, you will know it is morning.’

Or: ‘On the way here, on the immigrant ship,

on a stopover, I nearly took a job

in Ceylon as wireman to a tea plantation;

your life would have been different.’

I do not know history, what it makes.

I only know sounds, like magpies and voices,

and perhaps sometimes and faintly, the far chant

of tea pickers high in hill mist

early, in the morning.

John Miles, along with works of literary history and critique regarding the Australian Angry Penguin Modernist poets, is the author of five books of poetry. The recipient of both national and international poetry awards, he is also recognised for his work on the poets of the 17th century English Metaphysical school, and those of China’s Tang Dynasty, while he is currently engaged in study of American Confessional, and women poets. A past poetry editor of the 1990s literary journals Stet and Australian Writer, he has been the honorary poetry editor for Solstice Media’s The Independent Weekly, and its online successor InDaily, from their inceptions in 2006 and 2010.

‘Serendip, A History Lesson’, is from John’s collection Harvest: The Love Poems, manuscript 1994, published 2007. 

Readers’ original and unpublished poems of up to 40 lines can be emailed, with postal address, to [email protected]. Submissions should be in the body of the email, not as attachments. A poetry book will be awarded to each accepted contributor.