Issue 8: Catherine Vidler
The courtyard and the tree
In the courtyard, the tree is turning into love, the courtyard is becoming more and more attached, and of course, the sunflowers are warning everyone: don’t use these words until they settle down. But the sundial has already called in the clouds, and the wind-chimes can’t stop singing. So what happens now? Well it seems that the courtyard is turning into leaves, the tree is becoming more and more itself, and as it darkens, can you see those sunflowers, setting, with utter convention, on this developing scene?
The window and the tree
The tree outside the window is making blossoms. It is making them inside itself for the first and only time. The window waits with manifest transparency. When those blossoms finally come, it will open itself to them with all the vulnerability in the world.
The Story of Form, Substance, and Magic Trick
Once upon a time, Form slipped on Substance, Substance underwrote Magic Trick, and Magic Trick signed Form. They all lived happily ever after.
The fairytale tree
A long time ago, a tree was generated for the purpose of a natural fairytale (this one). But after only a short time, there was a complication. The complication was signalled by the tree’s fragrance, which, due to an unexpectedly heavy blossoming, had begun to intensify beyond its intent. The fairytale, thus alerted to the unscripted proliferation of the tree, strove lingeringly to bring it under control. Unfortunately (or not) for all concerned, however, those blossoms ended up covering everything that needed to be said*.
* The tree now lives on the edge of shrubbery and is inhabited by a small population of otherwise transient gaieties – but that’s another fairytale.
Catherine Vidler's first full-length collection of poems, Furious Triangle, was published by Puncher and Wattmann in June 2011. She is the editor of Snorkel, an online trans-Tasman literary magazine.
