Section: «Poems»
Verse (ancient Greek ὁ στίχος — row, structure), a term in versification used in several meanings:
artistic speech organized by division into rhythmically commensurate segments; poetry in the narrow sense; in particular, it implies the properties of versification of a particular tradition ("antique verse", "Akhmatova's verse", etc.);
a line of poetic text organized according to a certain rhythmic pattern ("My uncle of the most honest rules").
Ernest Hemingway and the Latest Quake
In fact the Earth never stops moving.Northbound in our millimetric shovingwe heap rainy Papua ahead of uswith tremor and fumarole and shearbut: no..
© Les Murray
Quintets for Robert Morley
Is it possible that hyper-ventilating up ParnassusI have neglected to pay tributeto the Stone Age aristocracy?I refer to the fat.We were probably the..
© Les Murray
Spermaceti
I sound my sight, and flexing skeletons eddyin our common wall. With a sonic bolt from the fragrantchamber of my head, I burst the lives of someand..
© Les Murray
The Broad Bean Sermon
Beanstalks, in any breeze, are a slack church paradewithout belief, saying trespass against us in unison,recruits in mint Air Force dacron, with..
© Les Murray
Panic Attack
The body had a nightmare.Awake. No need of the movie.No need of light, to keep hipsand shoulders rotating in bedon the gimbals of wet eyes.Pounding..
© Les Murray
The Moon man
Shadowy kangaroos moved offas we drove into the top paddockcoming home from a weddingunder a midnightish curd skythen his full face cleared:Moon man..
© Les Murray
The New Hieroglyphics
In the World language, sometimes calledAirport Road, a thinks balloon with a gondolaunder it is a symbol for speculation.Thumbs down to ear and..
© Les Murray
Towards The Imminent Days (Section 4)
In my aunt's house, the milk jug's beaded crochet covertickles the ear. We've eaten boiled things with butter.Pie spiced like islands, dissolving in..
© Les Murray
The Quality Of Sprawl
Sprawl is the qualityof the man who cut down his Rolls-Royceinto a farm utility truck, and sprawlis what the company lacked when it made repeated..
© Les Murray
Travels With John Hunter
We who travel between worldslose our muscle and bone.I was wheeling a barrow of earthwhen agony bayoneted me.I could not sit, or lie down,or stand..
© Les Murray
The Instrument
Who reads poetry? Not our intellectuals;they want to control it. Not lovers, not the combative,not examinees. They too skim it for bouquetsand magic..
© Les Murray
The Sleepout
Childhood sleeps in a verandah roomin an iron bed close to the wallwhere the winter over the railingswelled the blind on its timber boomand splinters..
© Les Murray
The Mowed Hollow
When yellow leaves the skythey pipe it to the housesto go on making redand warm and floral and brownbut gradually people tire of it,return it inside..
© Les Murray
High-Speed Bird
At full tilt, air gleamed -and a window-struck kingfisher,snatched up, lay on my palmstill beating faintly.Slowly, a tinctureof whatever..
© Les Murray
The Harleys
Blats booted to blatantdubbing the avenue direwith rubbings of Sveinn Forkbeardleading a black squall of Harleyswith Moe Snow-Whitebeard andPossum..
© Les Murray
Amanda's Painting
In the painting, I'm seated in a shield,coming home in it up a shadowy river.It is a small metal boat lined in eggshelland my hands grip the gunwale..
© Les Murray
On The Borders
We're driving across tablelandsomewhere in the world;it is almost bare of trees.Upland near void of featuresalways moves me, but not to thought;it..
© Les Murray
Cockspur Bush
I am lived. I am died.I was two-leafed three times, and grazed,but then I was stemmed and multiplied,sharp-thorned and caned, nested and..
© Les Murray
The Images Alone
Scarlet as the cloth draped over a sword,white as steaming rice, blue as leschenaultia,old curried towns, the frog in its green human skin;a..
© Les Murray
Child Logic
The smallest girlin the wild kid's gangsubmitted her fingerto his tomahawk idea -It hurt bad, dropping off.He knew he'd gone too farand ran, herding..
© Les Murray
The Butter Factory
It was built of things that must not mix:paint, cream, and water, fire and dusty oil.You heard the water dreaming in its largekneed pipes, up from..
© Les Murray
Shower
From the metal poppythis good blast of trancearriving as shock, private cloudburst blazing down,worst in a boarding-house greased tub, or a barrack..
© Les Murray
Predawn In Health
The stars are filtering through a treeoutside in the moon's silent era.Reality is moving layer over layerlike crystal spheres now called laws.The..
© Les Murray
Comete
Uphill in Melbourne on a beautiful daya woman is walking ahead of her hair.Like teak oiled soft to fracture and swayit hung to her heels and seconded..
© Les Murray
Aurora Prone
The lemon sunlight poured out far between thingsinhabits a coolness. Mosquitoes have subsided,flies are for later heat.Every tree's an auburn giant..
© Les Murray