If I was a Unicorn...

A chance meeting with a unicorn led to today's topic - unicorns! Okay it wasn't a real unicorn but what if? The challenge set for our writers was firstly to write a poem with the title "If I was a unicorn..." The poet could become the unicorn or look from the outside in a more detached way. And how does a unicorn move, think and feel anyway? So we had a bit of fun with that and then doubled down on the unicorn theme with a second poem that had to feature not only a unicorn, but a fluffy cloud, a sheep and a snowflake. These ideas were inspired by a lantern installation in Dunedin in the month of June at the Meridian Mall as part of the 2021 Dunedin Midwinter Carnival.

CLOUD SHAPES

From grassy bank, sky clear blue

in whose fluffy clouds imagination sees

a sheep jumping over a snowflake

a crystal tearing off, becoming a horn

ovine legs grow strongly long

now bouncing tail flows long and free

a fast and running unicorn, until

fluffy clouds reform, and all are gone

- Kate Jenkins

IF I WAS A UNICORN

Unique horn

Pointed

Sharp

Piercing eyes

Inward

To the heart

Lit from within

Shedding light outwards into

The dark and cold

Blackness of

night

- Pauline

IF I WAS A UNICORN

If I was a unicorn.

I would talk to animals.

Gallop along a field of grass.

I would jump over fences to explore the rest of the world.

I would feel free as my mane blows in the wind.

I would see animals in a different light.

I would meet people brave enough to meet a unicorn.

If I was a unicorn.

I would be happy forever.

Living in this fantasy world.

 

- Julia Godfrey

 

IF UNICORNS DIED OUT

Clamped in sediments am I

Old bones still strong and tight

Once in a forest I laid down

caught by storms of disbelief and doubt.

Historic?  Mythical?  Gone.

This life did not exist

But words held my pulse, and

Art kept my being light

A nursery tale, wandering, sought

Stories wished into open thought

I wait the day when scraping trowel

reveals my bones to show the 'now'

that I exist, I have not gone

Your dreams, your hopes

will trot my song

- Kate Jenkins