Leaving My Place on the River (Todd Turner)

Standing at the window,
looking out onto the river for the last time,
I turn my thoughts to a field where I stood as a child.
The wind is blowing.
And under a row of cypresses
there is a grave at the edge of the field.
It bears the marking of a small cross
and a name that I cannot read –
I hear the slow gears of pulleys
unchain in me.

 


Todd Turner is an Australian poet. Born in 1971, he has lived in Western Sydney since childhood. His parents were from farming families in Koorawatha, a town on the Western Plains of NSW. They moved to Sydney in 1959. Turner currently resides in Parramatta where he lives and works. Turner’s poems have been widely published and recognised, appearing in publications such as Meanjin, The Australian, Quadrant, Cordite and Southerly. Woodsmoke has been reviewed in Australian Poetry Journal, Australian Book Review, The Weekend Australian, Cordite and Australian Poetry Review. Turner has been shortlisted in the Newcastle Poetry Prize, the Blake Poetry Prize, the Henry Kendall Poetry Prize, and he was joint winner of the 2013 Jean Cecily Drake-Brockman Prize.