Poems

 “On Being an Almanacker”

What is it that catches my eye, or rather, that triggers the wondering of mind, the wandering of thought.

Still Life

Doug Esler (September 2017) Still life still lifeno breeze to stir themorning airno rustling of the statelytreesstill life still lifeno ripples on the patientlakeno sound of birds uponthe wingstill life still lifeharbours first peoples’ancient storieslocked away in a timelessvaultstill life still lifethe writer waits witheager pento scribe all of the mystictalesstill life still lifeguarding nature’s […]

Maisie’s Byrne’s bee farm

Helen Sheil (2017)
While there are other grand stories that originated in humble surroundings triggered in our memory by images of a bright star in a clear sky.
They were from another time.

Maise Byrne – 1930s’ poem

There are folk who travel eastwards And folk who travel west Just to roam afar from home Is what they like the best Some of them are weary And some of them are sad Away they go to hide their woe And make their sad hearts glad. Oh restless roving lonely folk Away in far [...]

Canberra keeping place

Andrew Spiker (2017) …fragments of a whole culturesignalling to us from a strip of magnetisedtapeaudiblelanguage of a dreamtimeGunaikurnai song…In the compactus of the institutecollectionsuch items sleep in their protective shells.Sometimes, after nightfall, in the vault,I imagined fleeting shapes just out ofsight.Photographs don’t tell the whole story;books can tell the story, but not thesound.Voices must be […]

The Flood

-Ante Deluvian : Post Plebian-

Martin Morse (2019)
Goat – melting into the brackish muck.
The Haunted House looming in the
background—
benign, dealt with; reconciled;
unthreatening.

The Picture Rail

Susan O’Brian (2019)
A crow takes to air/waves,
the world appears dark in certain iviews, Feathers break away, are then transmitted by deed or greed.
Do prayer flags still fly outside our houses?

The Mouse that Roared

Elizabeth Blakeman (1999) From notes on the Nowa Nowa Gorge and the Gas Pipeline intervention On the 2nd Dec 1999 a fax from an employee in the Department of Natural Resources and Environment told us that the international company Duke Energy Corporation were planning to blast their way through Boggy Creek in the heart of […]

On Nowa Nowa Arm

Doug Esler (April 2017)
In the snug embrace of Nowa Nowa Arm where ancient spirits watch and protect
herons strut with long-legged grace along the water’s verdant edge
and plovers, diligent nod and peck

Day of The Dragon

Helen Sheil (October 1999)
The day I first saw the dragon sparkled with spring sunshine.
I’d gone to the creek to walk with local people to better glimpse their dreams.
They were new acquaintances but felt like old friends.