States of Poetry - Poems

'Waking up poem' by Gina Mercer | States of Poetry Tasmania - Series Two

by Gina Mercer •

States of Poetry Tasmania - Series Two

States of Poetry - Poems

'Waking up poem' by Gina Mercer | States of Poetry Tasmania - Series Two

by Gina Mercer •

States of Poetry Tasmania - Series Two

Forget

all you know about Canute,
the king who believed the waves under his dominion,
he could stop the tides by command.

Remember

to bet all you have
on the dead cert

that global warming is real

as real as the Incas are extinct.

Published in Weaving Nests with Smoke and Stone, Walleah Press, 2015, page 26.

Gina Mercer

Gina Mercer enjoys a three-stranded career as writer, teacher, and editor. She has taught creative writing and literature in universities and communities for thirty years. She was Managing Editor of Island magazine, 2006–10. She has published a novel, Parachute Silk (Spinifex Press, 2001) and two academic books (UQP, 1994; Peter Lang, New York, 2001).

Gina has published five collections of poetry: The Ocean in the Kitchen (Five Islands Press, 1999), Night Breathing (Picaro Press, 2006), Handfeeding the Crocodile (Pardalote Press, 2007), and Seasoned with Honey (with three other women poets, Walleah Press, 2008). Her most recent collection, Weaving Nests with Smoke and Stone (Walleah Press, 2015), is all about birds.