Rod Usher
Decisions
One tiny ant laps
the sugar bowl, leaving me
in a dilemma.
If Everything is
Emptiness, do I still want
buckets of the stuff?
Buddha could well have
taken the money and run,
but turned himself in.
Song of a Suicide
“… reaching for the other shore
of the sea which has no other shore”
—Neruda in The Watersong Ends
The locks are on
all bets are off
the risen snake
runs through the grass.
Armageddon
and Judgement Day
how they pale now,
not in this class.
Two hands, one face
one sound to speak,
Time’s birthday lost
in history’s Bang,
turns to whimper,
cell doors closing,
feeling feels like
froid without sang.
As dead tree limbs
ache to drop and
swollen rivers
clamour for shore,
time to fall out,
shrug this pain off.
Hope? Not to be
sent back for more!
Rod Usher
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