Andrew Lansdown: Two poems
The Forgetting-Grass Enigma
How did it work,
the rush the ancient
Japanese knew
as “forgetting-grass”?
Did it cause a
rush of forgetting
or just an ebb
of remembering?
Was it added
to salads or soups?
Or dried out for
burning as incense?
Or as a drug
ingested, inhaled?
Or yet twined round
wrists as rough bracelets?
(No, not this last:
for recall-me-nots
worn would soon turn
to forget-me-nots.)
Well, regardless
how it worked, I wish
the ancients had
hoarded some for me.
Andrew Lansdown
Walking to the Waterfall
Meiji no Mori Minō Quasi-National Park,
Osaka Prefecture, Japan
Unbelievable—
this lovely valley livened
by vibrant droning
And straightaway I know it,
this guttural hum,
this deep elongated moan
that stirs a yearning
for the homeland it voices.
And looking between
the towering lamppost trunks
of the cypresses
as the tuneless toneful drone
fades and finishes
I spy by the running stream
a Japanese man
poised to listen to the sound
of streaming water
before blowing again into
his improvised didgeridoo.
Andrew Lansdown
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