Two poems
The Darkness Tanka
1
This Morning
Waking, unseen birds
are rowdy with rejoicing. Song
from every dark twig.
Unbearable but for the crows
cawing the colour of the heart.
2
At Nightfall
On the pier I caught
a surprise glimpse of my heart.
No longer fighting,
it lay gaping and gasping,
trying to voice its anguish.
3
Tonight
A darkness of soul
makes every perspective dark.
Oh, tonight the stars
look like bright spots in a scan,
showing where the tumours are.
Correspondence
Ugly and evil
are not, of course, synonymous—
yet I’m glad to say
the youth belting into his dog
is pasty, pimply and lank-haired!
Andrew Lansdown
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