"Summer Storms the Flowering Fennel" by Pey Pey Oh

Summer Storms the Flowering Fennel

by Pey Pey Oh

Tall green many-fingered Mother Goddess,
With your delicate gecko hands lifted in
Supplication to the sun and wind,
Open and feeling each tumbling ray and tearing breath,
Even as it roars up the hill,
Bending you in submission,
Nothing to gainsay it,
Nothing in its way,
No rock or pylon or tower,
The view is clear all the way to the river.

In this louring light, you glow–
Unearthly gold and bronze, a martian tinge,
The strength of your hollow stem whips tensile.
Fronds feather each blast and
Breathe it through your frame.
No wonder the fire of gods
Came to us in your womb,
Smuggled to us in the night;
Nothing can extinguish your grace.
Let me learn it, this suppleness,
Give me your queenly strength
And patience with the world's denizens,
Let me wear each raindrop,
Like diamonds in your umbrel crown.


© 2008 Pey Pey Oh


Creative process: Pey Pey Oh: I have to take a run up to it and spend a few days talking, reading and writing poetry, as I'm usually out of my head trying to organise family life. So today I was just dreaming and watching the Fennel wave at me outside in the stormy weather, and I got into a trancy state; and I wanted to be this rather majestic plant. And so. I'm afraid I don't plan it much. I might sit on it a bit before I take it out to see if it needs an edit. Oh, and I read a lot, that's crucial to my creative process. Sometimes I use words I didn't know I knew, but I obviously read it somewhere.

Pey Pey Oh has been published in various small magazines along the way, like the ones universities publish, or Magma. Mainly she has a problem sending out things by snail mail, so if she can't hand it to you or send you an email, she's in trouble. She likes plants a lot, especially if they're aromatic, but she's really bad at watering them. Good thing it rains a lot in UK where she lives. She likes coming and hanging out with the Malaysian Poets once a year when she visits home, and loves to read at Readings. Plus, she also likes to go eating with the Food Bloggers, that's her other best activity which makes her feel more Malaysian. One of her ambitions is that she'd like to be "Awae wi' tha faeries" - and that's with a Scots accent - but mostly she's a lazy cat that needs a kicking by her friends to send out stuff. So, she thanks everyone.