Sleep-flight (or a new poem)

I am rather excited to share a new poem that has just this week emerged among the pages of the New Zealand & Australian poetry journal Snorkel, issue number 18. My unassuming, flighty poem is sitting squat among some incredible poetry by a whole host of very talented writerly people.

'Sleep-flight [or arriving at Otakamiro]' recalls many, many late afternoon excursions to Otakamiro, where my other half and I would sit in our slowly puttering-out VW, which was truly on its last legs. After tucking into cooling fish & chips wrapped in newsprint in that hazy South Pacific light (there is nothing like it), we would walk down the scree-filled, hardly noticeable bush tracks and along the darkening shore lines to dip our toes.

I love trying to, and becoming frustrated with, the conceit of recording memory and all the myriad of ways in which we do this. Notably, in this poem, the narrator tries to do so through painting symbols of Otakamiro - or at least trying to - after having dreamed of it. This is almost an homage to those attempts. An attempt to witness through sleep-flight.

Do hop over to my poem and have a little gander - I'd so love you to.