QED

Jordie Albiston: poems

Jordie Albiston is a Melbourne poet who has published six collections. Her most recent is the sonnet according to ‘m’, currently shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Prize.

To listen to the readings click the play buttons on the audio players below: 

methinx (ii) 

wandering upon the suburban moors
I am cut to th’ brains again    o! when
will th’ moon shine through this poor
head?    while you have your ransom 

let me have surgeons then    let them
slice through th’ mire for their piece
of th’ pie let them operate ad infinitum
for my mind doth burst with its species 

of madness    & madness doth spill
from this mind    but while I’m alone
I am not short on shrapnel    & will
(if required) send forth stick & stone  

to combat th’ front of this ill    I stand
for nought    o! edgar    I nothing am

mandragora 

sleep! o sleep the certain knot of peace / a little sleep a little slumber a little folding of the hands to sleep / our birth is but a sleep & a forgetting / life is a watch or a vision between a sleep & a sleep / thou hast nor youth nor age but as it were an after-dinner’s sleep dreaming on both / o / was it a vision or a waking dream do I wake or sleep / now it is high time to awake out of sleep / o sleep    why dost thou leave me / o sleep    again deceive me / o sleep!    it
is a gentle thing / o sleep!    it is a gentle thing / a sleep full of sweet dreams 

not poppy nor mandragora nor all the drowsy syrups of the world shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep / we shall not sleep though poppies growin flanders fields / & we must sleep / & night    & sleep in the night / but / what hath night to do with sleep? / no sleep till morn / sleep to wake / one short sleep past    we wake eternally / macbeth doth murder sleep / macbeth shall sleep no more / glamis hath murder’d sleep / & we shall not sleep / we shall not all sleep / we shall not all sleep / but / o! / we shall all be changed

Books by Jordie Albiston:

Nervous Arcs (Spinifex Press, 1995)
Botany Bay Document (Black Pepper, 1996)
The Hanging of Jean Lee (Black Pepper, 1998)
The Fall (White Crane Press, 2003)
Vertigo: A Cantata (John Leonard Press, 2007)
the sonnet according to ‘m’ (John Leonard Press, 2009)

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