Sea Dreams
The sea holds everything we dreamed
as children, and it all comes back
when we drive over a high hill
and see the waves smash on the rocks:
so we awoke when only five
into a darkness full of fright.
Perhaps it dreamt us once, and brought
us forth without a sense of time.
To contemplate it is to drift
back into a vast wash of being
that dissolves the self in the surge
of quite another life until
one last, cold current intervenes
and we know we’ll not emerge.
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
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