Damian Balassone: ‘Canberra’ and ‘Hong Kong Swansong 1997’
Canberra
“The king is dead! The king is dead!”
confirms the crematorium.
Audaciously the mutineers
defied the moratorium.
There’s laughter in the parliament.
There’s dancing in emporiums.
His deeds will be confined to pages
scribbled in scriptoriums.
A puppet-queen will praise his name
before an auditorium,
and lepers have descended on
the toppled king’s praetorium.
Damian Balassone
Hong Kong Swansong 1997
From eighteen ninety-eight
to nineteen ninety-seven
the Lady of the Kong
consumed the fruits of heaven;
but now she bids farewell to British rule …
she’s once again the crown in China’s jewel.
Damian Balassone
Madam: Archbishop Fisher (July-August 2024) does not resist the attacks on his church by the political, social or scientific atheists and those who insist on not being told what to do.
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6 mins
To claim Aborigines have the world's oldest continuous culture is to misunderstand the meaning of culture, which continuously changes over time and location. For a culture not to change over time would be a reproach and certainly not a cause for celebration, for it would indicate that there had been no capacity to adapt. Clearly this has not been the case
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23 mins
A friend and longtime supporter of Quadrant, Clive James sent us a poem in 2010, which we published in our December issue. Like the Taronga Park Aquarium he recalls in its 'mocked-up sandstone cave' it's not to be forgotten
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2 mins