Western Australian poets: Amanda Joy

Walking Dialogue

by Amanda Joy

Today, I didn’t think,
I didn’t speak,
I walked.

I walked in atonement,
I walked with limbs seeking clemency,
I walked with the eloquence of feet on dry leaves.

I let my eye become an opening
Today;
I allowed a penetration,
like music into my body,
I walked to clear choking definitions
I walked to erase a separation

I walked to fabricate another distance,
I walked to secure my own form.

I walked to divine my losses,
I walked to shake a shadow
settling on my light-heartedness.

As I walked my compass
was drawing circles
around a small stone
you’ve been keeping
which belongs to me. 

Amanda Joy is a West Australian poet, sculptor, installation artist and songwriter. Born in Broome in the Kimberley region she lives in Fremantle and publishes her poetry online and in various journals and  books. 

One of her poems- Almost Pause/Pareidolia- was recently shortlisted for the 2013 Blake Poetry Prize.

Some of her poetry can be found on her website Little Glass Pen.

Her book of poems Orchid Poems was published in 2001 by Mulla Mulla Press in Perth, Western Australia (a review of the book is here) and another small book of poems Not Enough to Fold was published in 2008. Some poetry and artwork from that book can be viewed here. 

In 2010 she published another collection of poems titled In Hand.

Not Enough to Fold
by Amanda Joy 

Forgotten like air
without movement

The simple dream
of people talking

Animate with hunger
for the unexpected

While the woman
I used to be
sleeps