Persistence of the Reformation
Seen from this high cutting
the sky drifts white linen
over dance floors of water
either side the shady creek
that trickles down country
lagoons gummed with water fern
saucepans of wet money
brass polyester gold
couch grass black with swamp
lily dams backed up gullies
and parallel in paspalum
old tillages that fed barns
no one grows patch crops now
slow-walking black cattle
circle up off cleared flats
past pastel new brick houses
and higher charcoal-barrelled
hills are fields of a war
five centuries Western jihad
though it was first called
the Thirty Years War
buff coats and ships’ cannon
the Christian civil war
of worldwide estrangement
shattered splendour Jack Tar
the nun-harem, Old Red Socks
wives “turning” for husbands
those forbidden their loves
come day go day
God send Sunday
Forget the Boyne Water
six pack, Lord Lundy
pitch Fawkes and Crummel
as boys forget Rommel—
bigot slurs jostled tempers
here, too, into the dairy age
almost the Tree Change age. And
the local dead still mostly
report to their fenced divisions
though beliefs have gone private
and wry unpreached help
has long been the message
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