Latest Articles
Our new G-G let slip an avalanche of heartfelt concern that recast our 236 years of indifference and guilt
Sep 17 2024
8 mins
The lust for power can be as great or greater driver of human effort as the good and humane
Sep 16 2024
11 mins
Elizabeth Smither: Cilla, writing
Cilla, writing
We are the shortest laureates*. But this afternoon
Cilla almost touches the sky, writing
on her motel balcony, two storeys up.
Her head in its peaked cap, her pen
are outlined in a strange significant shadow
a little laureate traced by Rouault
and in the shadows a shorter laureate watching
admiring her application, her skywriting.
The day moon is there, the blinding sun.
Her neck grows warm, her neat head bends
over the page, she stretches her arms
and seems to frown and squint.
It is words, you clowns, the other laureate thinks
not sun in her eyes, not pain of thought
but heart and pen at work again.
Elizabeth Smither
*Cilla McQueen (2009-2011) and Elizabeth Smither (2001-2003) are the two shortest New Zealand poets laureate.
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
