Cyprus Vignettes
I
A rain-front, black as the local wine,
A drift of late spring snow glittering,
Climbed the peaks above Pera Pedi.
Its inundations left conifers
Spangled in beads of diamond water,
The roots of antique olive groves
Keeping the washed landscape intact.
II
Wandering through these weathered streets,
Sometimes the chalky limestone seeps
Conversation and the spiced aroma
Of family victuals at evening,
Theodorakis’s music welling,
Jewelled peacocks echoing in the valley.
III
On a mountain outside Lachi,
The grotto of Aphrodite’s Bath
Looks towards the Ottoman north.
The rising moon is a scimitar.
IV
Above Kyrenia’s limestone harbour,
Arid gullies full of bird-song,
The dapple of mountain butterflies
Is a kite-tail on the blue thermal.
And tattooed on the stony landscape—
A stand of purple rock-roses.
V
In a shaded cliff-face’s fertile clefts,
Aromatic herbs and shrubs blossom
Beneath the castle of St Hilarion,
Thriving against the ruins of History.
VI
By a highway leaving Limassol,
An elderly Greek, in shirt and tie,
Searches through the flinty scrub
For wild herbs and fragrant grasses,
Garnishes to an afternoon meal.
The nearby Roman ruins flute
And billow, full of ancient wind.
VII
The endless hand-stacked slate slab fences,
Defining the vineyard’s steep vectors,
And neatly hemming the carob groves,
Embody a callused labour of lives,
A prodigious ordering of the stones.
They hold the high hillsides back.
VIII
A group of vineyard workers,
Full of wine and goat meat,
Children joining their arabesques,
Dance in the crowded café.
One places his mobile phone
On a roughly hewn table.
They sing joyously into it,
For a friend in a hospital ward,
Cut off from all this life.
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.
Aug 29 2024
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
Aug 20 2024
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
Aug 16 2024
2 mins