Bio
BN Oakman, formerly an academic economist, has published many poems in journals and magazines in Australia, the UK and the USA and two full length collections, In Defence of Hawaiian Shirts (IP 2010) and Second Thoughts (IP 2014) plus two chapbooks. In 2016 the distinguished Australian actor John Flaus recorded 25 of his poems for a CD titled 'What did I know?' Bruce was a Pushcart Prize nominee in 2015. www.bnoakman.com.
BN Oakman
Birthday
After Ted Kooser's 'A Happy Birthday'
I'll not set flame to wishful candles
nor boast of mere survival to my
peers but in that final fading hour
of the afternoon when crows shriek
at a setting sun and crickets chatter
evensongs I'll sit by a corner window
and scribble on a pad propped upon
my knee until night's benediction
steals across my page. Then I'll switch
on lamps and observe the sustaining
rituals of evening before climbing the
stairs to sleep until a trio of magpies
nested in the garden warbles matins
at first light of another numbered year.