Mycelium

Aftermath. Community. Love. Pantoum.

When I was in hospital, my old friend Hari Berrow helped me by e-mailing me writing assignments. This poem is the result of one such assignment. It is a Pantoum, a poetic form with origins in Malay literature, characterised by its use of repeated lines to create a cyclical structure. 

They are fun to write. You should try one.

This is the link Hari Berrow sent me which explains the form.

My attempt is below.

Mycelium

Seen from the surface we are two funny-shaped mushrooms
it mightn’t be clear we are enmeshed and entwined
with decades of mutual growth, filaments spiralled through the soil
while our connections are closest, our filaments spread across our forest.

It mightn’t be clear we are enmeshed and entwined
each nourishing the other and nourished in turn
our connections are closest, the filaments spread across our forest
connecting with trees and lichen and moss.

Each nourishing the other and nourished in turn
we ensure and grow closer with time
connecting with trees and lichen and moss
a community of beings united in a web of support.

With decades of mutual growth, filaments spiralled through the soil
together we thrive and endure, connected in ways most can’t see
in some ways fleeting, in others eternal
but from the surface, we are two funny-shaped mushrooms.