Peter Jeffrey: Three Poems
The 20s and 30s
When every Dan was dapper,
And your mama was a flapper
And her turned-down hose were silk
And she came home with the milk
After flirting with the waiters;
Everything was gas and gaiters.
The jazz music was the thing
And the singer’s name was Bing.
Beer and wine ran in the gutter,
But Bootleg fizz was simply utter,
Utter bliss, and F. Scott Fitz,
And Fred were Puttin’ on the Ritz.
But then the market lost its glitz
And it all went on the fritz.
Meanwhile in sunny Spain
More than rain fell on the plain
And then Adolf and his gang
Stopped the party with a bang;
And his Neue Ordnung
Brought on Gotterdammerung.
Peter Jeffrey
And actually setting foot on the uninteresting moon makes the earth accidental and smaller and the universe somewhat more knowable and less interesting. Heaven and God are not up there. The moon has no more personality. Edmund Wilson — The Sixties
Moonshot
When NASA shot the moon we saw the whole thing on tv.
First, Mare Tranquillatis boiled with dust;
A non-Platonic solid squatted down;
Two lumpen men emerged and bounced around,
Brimful of the Right Stuff.
Unlucky thirteen bars and fifty plastic stars soon pierced the virgin crust,
Meanwhile Selene had gone:
The Goddess had departed with the moonglow.
A satellite of pimpled stone hangs in the modern sky,
Like a pale Chaucerian arse hung from a midnight window.
Peter Jeffrey
Style notes #4
Assessing my dress this a.m.
I just apply one simple test;
Were I to bump into Sarah
Would she be aghast or impressed,
Or mutely, but deeply, depressed
By the barbarous way that I’m dressed?
On the whole, I think for the best,
I sadly return to its chest
That scarlet and green tartan vest.
Peter Jeffrey
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