Topic Tags:
0 Comments

John Carey: ‘Lamentatio’ and ‘Pro Forma’

John Carey

Sep 29 2022

1 mins

Lamentatio

My fine-motor skills were never much
to scribble home about and they’ve started
to let me down less gently than ever—
mis-dunk of biscuits in coffee, typos

and skewed alignments in emails. My eyes
and ears too are, if not stuffed, not what
or even as many as they used to be in
terms of utility. I’ll soon be prone to falls

and prone longer after them. So it goes.
I’ve got my affairs in order slowly
with the help of a solicitor, all the cheaper
for having nothing to spend his money on

and older and more decrepit than I.
Now I’m all dressed up and nowhere to go that
I trust to be there without a heritage order. If it
weren’t a laughing matter, it would only upset me.

John Carey

Pro Forma

A poem, I’ve been told, should stir
the pilomotor reflex, make hair stand on end
like a voice behind you: “Got a light?”
at the station exit at midnight
or a sudden scurry of bait-fish
at dawn off a beach at Tumby Bay,
a poem whose every vowel is coloured red
like a stop-light. But even the most
populist master of comédie larmoyante
or grand guignol needs a cage of structure
and a measured dose to put you far enough
under to have your buttons pushed without
a struggle, at the mercy of the unbidden.
You need to send a spine up the shiver.

John Carey

 

Comments

Join the Conversation

Already a member?

What to read next

  • Ukraine and Russia, it Isn’t Our Fight

    Many will disagree, but World War III is too great a risk to run by involving ourselves in a distant border conflict

    Sep 25 2024

    5 mins

  • Aboriginal Culture is Young, Not Ancient

    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

  • Pennies for the Shark

    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