Grant Shimmin

Canterbury

News Director, Opinion at Stuff.co.nz

News Director, Opinion at Nine

News Director, Opinion, @ Stuff. Own views. Poet, reader for @pocketsmag. Mastermind semi-finalist. He, him. Trans rights are human rights. #beforeallelsebekind

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Articles

One Felt Dawn, By: Grant Shimmin

Aug 7, 2024 | poetrycatalog.com | Grant Shimmin

Dawn is a felt-board tableau A climbing black line of silhouetted hillside on a board of deep blue with a crescent of waning Moon pasted above a dark rise Scattered starry pinpricks higher up like distant relations of the light points that pepper the silhouetted ridge and a blue gum climbing black against the blue But there are frequent telltale signs that this board may be an upgrade on those of 20th century childhoods The Moon eases slowly down the blue backdrop and the sky is lighter below...
The history of sand

Jul 22, 2024 | pikerpress.com | Grant Shimmin

The history of sand Easterly Stiff, unrelenting Straight in my right ear as I bend to the pebble’s polish Not perfect; its oblong shape, its finish Smoothed just enough to tell a rugged tale How many times has the foam, borne like a sacrifice in the mouth of each wave hungrily seeking the sand and then, left behind, whipped to rigid peaks by the easterly come since that pebble’s prehistoric predecessor first rolled towards this spot the resistance of rough edges overcome by the surge?
Joy, By: Grant Shimmin

Jun 27, 2024 | poetrycatalog.com | Grant Shimmin

The sound of joy is a chorusNot sung by a choir, sheet music in handconductor-controlled,slick entries, crisp exitstight harmoniesThough that does make joy risein the singing, the hearingMakes tears spring in eyes’ cornersand shivers scale spinesThe sound of joy is a chorusplayed by the gradually unveiling dawnFull-throated songs lifted by the arriving sunSolos, ensembles,instinctive.
Hills alive by Grant Shimmin; poem unrhymed

Jun 24, 2024 | pikerpress.com | Grant Shimmin

Hills alive (First draft, South Africa, 1985, rewritten in 2022) I’ve watched the distant hills all day Ice dawn from the open-topped latrines where once a brazen bee bayoneted a comrade’s bare backside To fire dusk, heating sausages from a tin in a billy boiling water over a breath-blown blaze Unmoved, yet so alive Chameleonic Orange early from the day’s new sun rising through the Highveld’s haze Lightening, and brightening as the orb ascended shaking loose the hanging dust of dawn Then the...
Eulogy by Grant Shimmin; poem unrhymed

May 27, 2024 | pikerpress.com | Grant Shimmin

Eulogy He was a wonderful father, I say Caring, loving, the gentlest man I’ve known Always there, always part of our lives I remember how we’d wait for him to get home So he could join us in the pool Or bowl to us on that grass strip alongside Or just throw a ball to me As I threw myself around on the lawn In my competitive element It’s special to know he was there The day all that catching practice came to fruition As the ball caught the edge, I flung myself to my left And it thudded into my...
Four Poems — The Argyle Literary Magazine

May 20, 2024 | theargylelitmag.com | David Estringel |Grant Shimmin

Why I rise early Dawn has not quite cracked when I rise to the sound of joy The sparkles of streetlights are noticeably shortened The curves and colours of trees and hillsides just discernible through the retreating gloom But the music, oh the sweet, sweet music of unfolding dawn swells through the valley Crisscrossing voices all speaking in tongues only their own can interpret A bellbird comes in above the chorus ringing in the sunrise with the purest of two-beat chimes Louder and more...
Green, By: Grant Shimmin

May 15, 2024 | poetrycatalog.com | Grant Shimmin

Green, By: Grant Shimmin May 15, 2024 by Grant Shimmin There’s a green called Spring and there should be Halfway between cyan and just plain old green on the colour wheel says the web that contains the world But Spring’s not a shade on a swatch in a paint shop It’s a mood, a vibe, a sense of something returned, revived, renewed It’s shades, and it’s light that shines them into your eyes It’s rich scents in your nostrils blended with the bold stirring music of rebirth It’s life springing forth...
The Rose by Grant Shimmin; poem unrhymed

Apr 29, 2024 | pikerpress.com | Grant Shimmin

The rose The floating fragrance met me several stairs from the top where it sat, regal, attracting stares drawing viewers into its perfumed embrace In truth, I was the only viewer then but its palpable pull convinced me all who took this path would too be helplessly entranced by its magnetic aroma The copulation of colours, two become one mingling, and birthing new shades had caught me on the bottom step The scent had sealed the deal, halfway up As I bent to draw it deep into my nostrils I...
A Cabin By The Sea, By: Grant Shimmin

Apr 8, 2024 | poetrycatalog.com | Grant Shimmin

Framed in the cabin’s small corner window The mares graze in the morning’s soft glow Oblivious to all but the short green grass and each other Without sound they stay close, turning together Last night’s southerly no longer buffets the cabbage tree In this cropped corner of a seaside paddock patchwork Stood slimly strong, it guards the dregs Of the small pond shrunk by months of dryness The frog croaks of December are forgotten in February Fallen foul of hungry herons or simply dwindled out...
Pigeon Bay by Grant Shimmin; poem unrhymed

Apr 1, 2024 | pikerpress.com | Grant Shimmin

Pigeon Bay Banks Peninsula, New Zealand As the path unfurls into forest from the still water’s edge Bellbirds peal out intersecting songs of painful purity The collision of calls unaffects their collective clarityTill a buzz saws across it, the wing-whirred bass thrum of a bumblebee on manoeuvres Hovering, note rising for forward One sweep, then two, then the peals ring back trueIn a treetop, a pair.