Passing beauty
It's moving, just ahead
of the player's most clever feet.
Every four years, we fill a cup,
then pour it out, a month of dreams.
Was it just last week that Bergkamp
flicked with orange elegance,
side-footing space and time?
No, he is long gone now,
off fielding forty years.
Others follow. Messy time
melts beauty, remoulds it,
casts it always anew.
It never ages, constantly fired,
as we fade, we watchers,
yesterday's players, passing.
Twenty sips at the cup
will fill a lifetime;
held safe in keeper's hands.
–P. S. Cottier
Charlie Darwin
On the back of a ten pound note
Definitely simian features beneath those whiskers —
The eyes too close, the low bridge of the nose,
Those long ears; pendulous lobes.
There's definitely a great big hairy chest,
Beneath that stiff Victorian coat.
–James Morris
Not a prayer, more like express post
Our miners
Which art in Australia
Famous be thy names
Thy hearts awaken
Thy profits share
With the poor both here and overseas
Show us this day our country's generosity
And forgive us our honesty
As we forgive those who spin profits against us
And lead us not into depression
But deliver us from crass greed
For thine is the earth's wealth, today's potential glory
But it's never for ever
Amen
–Jill Sutton
Time lingers
to wash away words
while the leaf dreams
inside the leaf
the flower lifts its head
from its scattered sleep
and meets the sun
–Lidija Šimkute
In all the many malls
Lou Reed still belts it out
While Andy Warhol revolves at
33rpm from far down below
Watching history repeat
Into naughty noughty nostalgia
For such bravado can only be
Applauded if tickets sell
While greatest hits fill the shelves
In all the many malls
–B. W. Shearer
before the fall
before the fall of thinking,
before rain,
before the song of wet earth,
low white noise.
hear it as the chant of
the unseens —
ripple in a magpie's throat —
as the sigh
of a city's prayer cushions —
forgiveness
has the weight of faith and cloud.
and now rain,
symphonic on tin, washing
walls of doubt
–Kevin Gillam
Indications
A pall descends,
a noticing of mixed arrangements,
appointments double booked,
time out of kilter, meetings not attended.
Reticence accompanies engagement,
reluctance to become too fully present,
consciousness of a cloudiness in days
formerly transparent.
Voice tone, word choice alter.
Less apparent, the picking up and putting down
or starting to put down, a wrong drawer opened;
actions observed, corrected.
From lull and torpor brisk activity
sharpens awareness. A task completed
seems to satisfy.
Emergence and retreat conform the days.
–Lerys Byrnes
paint
your paint
is layered, scraped
& wiped coloured
borders divide
the canvas like a country
like the parts
of a long marriage
a chorus of roles
sung around
& around in the cry
of grandchildren
& their grandchildren
fluttering a story
a blanket shake song of dust
–Rory Harris
Black cockatoos
Presaged
by primordial cries
slow
and awkward
they came,
pulled as if
by unseen strings
to feast on pine seeds
Mourning-suit black,
collapsing
like broken umbrellas
in the foliage
And with the balance
and poise
of trapeze artistes,
slightly tipsy
They swing, shuffle
and sidle
their way
to lunch
–Roland Ashby
Astronomy
The astronomical
paradox
is closest
when farthest
away.
–Michael Crotty
P. S. Cottier is a Canberra based poet and writer. Her latest book is A Quiet Day, a collection of short stories published by Ginninderra Press.
James Morris is a poet based in Bangkok.
Jill Sutton is a wordsmith who lives in Melbourne and worries about the future.
Lidija Šimkute is a bilingual poet and translator. Her poem 'My father' was shortlisted for 'Poem of the Millennium' at the Australian Poetry Festival 2004, and she was one of the laureates at a Haiku competition at the Autumn Poetry Festival in Lithuania, 2009.
B. W. Shearer is a Melbourne writer who has been published in the USA, Poland and Australia. A collection of his children's plays, Plays to Value, was published by Curriculum Corporation in 2005.
Kevin Gillam is a West Australian writer with work published in numerous Australian and overseas journals. His two published books of poetry are Other Gravities (2003) and Permitted To Fall (2007), both by SunLine Press.
Lerys Byrnes is a Melbourne-based poet. Her work has been published in Australia, USA and the UK. Author photo by Rosa Lamberti.
Rory Harris is a poet and teacher. His poetry collections include Over the Outrow, From the Residence, Snapshots From a Moving Train, 16 poems, and Uncle Jack and Other Poems.
Roland Ashby is Editor of The Melbourne Anglican.
Michael Crotty is a Sydney poet.