Rhys Frank Brookbanks--By Isha Wagner--New Zealand

Rhys Frank Brookbanks

(my friend, age 26)

Death of a Poet : Christchurch earthquake

February 22, 2011

There is a pattern finer than spun web

Intricate, light-filled, palpable to the inner image

Observable to Rhys' mind's eye

His brain dancing upon words

Forming patterns into constructions

Sudden rush of a secret thought

Twisting itself into zigzag shape

Always the gap twixt word and light

In that space on a summer's day

Earth shakes itself fiercely

Rhys for a few seconds uncomprehending

Then his mind splinters into a million words

The spinning web design does not cease

It toils on.

Isha Wagner is a New Zealand poet. She has resided in many countries including Iceland, Libya, India, and Australia.  She read some of her work at the VIII International Poetry Festival held in Granada, Nicaragua, in February 2012. She has had three collections of poetry published.