Two poems
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A pair of kagou birds (Rhinochaetus jubatus) with one displaying to the other. Wood engraving by F.J. Gauchard after A. Mesnel. Wellcome Collection. Source: Wellcome Collection.
By Tony D’Arpino
Voices of Island Biodiversity
1. Space Island
Vostok Island is an uninhabited coral island in the central Pacific, part of the Line Islands belonging to Kiribati. There is no lagoon or fresh water on the island, and no known freshwater lens. Vostok is covered with a pure stand of Pisonia trees rooted in moist peat soil one meter thick. The scientific name of this species is (secret). These trees, with heights of up to 30 metres, grow so densely that no other plants can grow beneath them. It is also known as Black Hole Island because of its dark appearance on Google Earth.
My tree is an island
In a sea of display
Round forest square
Pages of illustrated birds
In the south porch of the manuscript
Illuminated in natural light
A stone coin for the treehouse
A wave for the unknown surfer
All ink
2. L’Oiseleur. Bird-catcher.
Pisonia is a genus of flowering plants in the four o'clock flower family, Nyctaginaceae. It was named for Dutch physician and naturalist Willem Piso, who botanized in Dutch Brazil (1637-1644), was one of the founders of tropical medicine, and is buried near Rembrandt in Amsterdam. Known as birdlime trees because they catch birds. The sticky seeds seem to be an adaptation that ensures the dispersal of seeds between islands by attaching them to birds and allows for the enriching of coralline sands by the bodies of dead birds.
So many birds in the sky and the shadows
Nests in the walls of the hanging tricks
Food in the ground and the nuts and the leaves
The river of spiders and dreams and moss
Light rain forest
3. Sister Island
Penrhyn (Tongareva) is an atoll in the northern group of the Cook Islands in the South Pacific. It is located 848 miles north-north-east of the capital island of Rarotonga, nine degrees south of the equator. It was once the most heavily populated atoll of Oceania. It was almost completely depopulated by Peruvian slavers in 1864.
Breadfruit poem of the world
Wrinkled fruit of sex and bread
Smells like every outdoor kitchen
On the island behind the light
In the shade of the breadfruit trees
Where the birds are dreaming
In three languages
We are close to
4. Java Luck
The Ontong Java flying fox (Pteropus howensis) is a species of megabat. It is endemic to the Ontong Java Atoll in the Solomon Islands, the largest atoll on the planet. The island’s name is from the Malay for fortune, destiny, luck.
bird paths
certain birds (volatile substances)
are like an alleluia in the tropics
Kagu (Rhynochetos jubatus)
the worm-charming ghost bird of the island forest
almost flightless great white hoopoe crown of feathers
beauty barking song
In 1989 the Solomon Islands seized an American purse seiner caught poaching well into their waters. The US promptly slapped an embargo on Solomon fish. The US does not recognize the International Law of the Sea and considers tuna a migratory fish.
my compass of fish scales
your waves of stars
The She-Oak
Ocean tree
Beach ironwood
Ally of the island shore
Casuarina equisetifolia
Not oak not pine
The sound of the surf
The cones
Acorn-sized
Like hazelnuts
A coincidence
Of opposites
In one tree
Her children
Are paddles
And great ocean canoes
The eel
And the flounder
Eggs of the coconut
Her island
Of nose flutes
Our splinter of salt
Tony D’Arpino is an American poet based in Bristol, United Kingdom. His latest book is Sky Tree Sky (Alien Buddha Press, 2024), a long poem based on the journals of Scottish botanist David Douglas. His poems have appeared recently in the Evergreen Review, the Winter Anthology, Blackbox Manifold, and Petrichor.