Poem: Whitefella travelling
Geoffrey Aitken writes of a road less travelled in today’s Poet’s Corner.
Whitefella travelling
Northern Territory, Australia
the Sandover Highway
stretches north east from the Plenty –
itself attached to Highway 87
out of Alice Springs
slicing through country
it connects cultures
700 km from town
lies Alpurrurulam
embracing the Territory/Queensland border
seven hours hard solo driving
Toyota tough
with satellite phone/overcast skies/good grace
expect mostly traffic of stock/roos
few cars
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educational postman me
delivering adult literacy
at journey’s end.
Geoffrey Aitken has lived on the Fleurieu Peninsula since retirement in 2016. A former tradesman fitter, and mature-graduate senior school English teacher, he also lived, worked and taught in the Northern Territory for 30 years. His poems have been published in a number of print and online journals in Australia, the UK and US, and he was one of the three featured poets in the 2018 edition of Friendly Street Poets’ ‘New Poets Series’, details of which can be found here. He reads at open mikes, and with wife Jenny also runs ‘Poetry Feasting,’ a joint poetry and culinary website.
Readers’ original and unpublished poems of up to 40 lines can be emailed, with postal address, to [email protected]. Submissions should be in the body of the email, not as attachments. A poetry book will be awarded to each accepted contributor.