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36 mins
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Sean Wayman: ‘The Power Dynamics Police’ and ‘We Poets Dream of Reaching the Sublime’
The Power Dynamics Police
The presence of power dynamics within sexuality is in no sense the same as the simple consolidation or augmentation of a heterosexist or phallogocentric power regime. —Judith Butler
The power dynamics police
Are giving us most of their time.
They’re finding new species of crime,
Our ethically-minded police.
The power dynamics police
Have got every reprobate’s measure.
They’re curbing inequable pleasure,
Our just and unbiased police.
The power dynamics police
Are spilling their lifeblood on Twitter.
Such selflessness makes them seem bitter,
Our misapprehended police.
The power dynamics police
Are stamping out microaggressions.
They’re ready to hear our confessions,
Our sage and enlightened police.
The power dynamics police
Are fighting the heterosexist.
They’re chomping on virtue for breakfast.
O how I revere our police!
The power dynamics police,
Possess an uncanny clairvoyance.
They’re every malfeasor’s annoyance,
Let’s panegyrise our police.
The power dynamics police
Are putting on extra patrols.
They fathom the depths of our souls,
So please don’t defund our police!
Sean Wayman
We Poets Dream of Reaching the Sublime
We poets dream of reaching the sublime,
where words attain their fullest amplitude.
We struggle upward to the thwack of rhyme.
There’s more to poetry than keeping time
or putting readers in a pensive mood.
We poets dream of reaching the sublime.
Before we learn to make the tone bars chime,
our tilts at music are obscenely crude.
We struggle upward to the thwack of rhyme.
It’s strange, perhaps, to dedicate your prime
to years of struggling with ineptitude.
We poets dream of reaching the sublime.
However soaringly our visions climb,
we’d count our luck to play the interlude.
We struggle upward to the thwack of rhyme.
In truth, there’s just no other paradigm
which fits the soul with such exactitude.
We poets dream of reaching the sublime.
We struggle upward to the thwack of rhyme.
Sean Wayman
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
