Natepod The weblog of Nate Cull

Poem: Equinox

One of a pair written for my Last Supper station at the 2006 Opawa Baptist Easter Journey. Accompanying photograph: Cashel Mall at The Crossing. Music: Dido, Rhian Sheehan.

My theme was quietness in transience. I picked a fast food motif for the Supper table. Trying to make a place for reflection and rest in the rush and the hurry, before the oncoming darkness of winter and the Passion. Also trying to anchor my spirituality in the discrete here and now of Christchurch, Easter 2006, where New Zealand's inverted seasons turn a Northern Hemisphere spring festival into a dirge of autumn; how we confront an alien land's church calendar here must necessarily adapt. This poem reflects the physicality of a moment in time. I still love it.

Equinox

Christchurch at Easter
is a rain-slick labyrinth
daylight saving's cut out
and we're stumbling into autumn dark

the clock ticks, sunset closing in
shops shut early
traffic backs up Moorhouse Ave
Cashel Mall fades, grey to black

now and here's a window
just one moment
as the busker pauses
and the dance floor breathes

to steal such quiet
as we can
make spaces
in between the notes

drink coffee on Colombo Street
and listen