Deep Time Writer’s Residency

Entrance to HGHS Artist in Residence studio, Malins Block basement

Days are divided into shallow gasps of quick time

by bells appointing high sided nests of focus

but I climb determinedly into tree time,

measuring my term in million year

increments of painted paper.

Majestic and inspiring trio of Redwoods as seen from the studio's northeast facing windows

In classrooms I tell the story of a rare visit

from an elusively generous muse;

how she punctuates the equilibrium of

my persistent plodding productivity

with the mysterious appearance of a poem

that enables flight, indeed, requires it.

Mysterious, aquarium like view from the studio's western window

I offer out a rainbow of papers

and share the magic of folding

never tiring of the irresistible transformation

from plain sheet to turning pages;

we harness that pleasure into poetry and

race to fill their books before the bell.

Deep Time Writer's Residency tunnel book, detail

In the studio at lunchtime

it’s all the sweet raucous intensity

of a dawn chorus in spring:

girls creating wild beauty, breaking

all the book making rules to

evolve new structures that

give me fresh courage to adapt myself.

Tunnel book (2/3 view)

In this dim green-windowed cave

under the science block

I study deep time,

grasping at immensity,

painting eternity purple.

Outside the school blossoms

with little coloured books;

we are swept by a virus of paper folding,

and poetry fading under our footsteps.

Deep Time Writer's Residency, unique book commissioned by HGHS