W D Knoll: ‘Wild Ducks’
Wild Ducks
God! Filter-feeding, whistle-wild ducks
Take flight like trim-feathered skim-rocks;
A swung-winged go, an onward throw
That slaps, that signs off lakes below
To rise, arrowed ripples in the larger air
To gain or lose, risk vital freedoms rare.
A rise to fall, to cry life! be alive so much
They skim gravity aside in their re-touch.
Yet, in the catch-shy air, their watery wake,
Comes a longing: my soul’s too-heavy ache.
W D Knoll
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