In a highway service station Over the month of June Was a photograph of the earth Taken coming back from the moon And you couldn’t see a city On that marbled bowling ball Or a forest or a highway Or me here least of all You couldn’t see these cold water restrooms Or this baggage … Continue reading Song of the Road (2) – The Accidental Traveller
These were our children who died for our lands: they were dear in our sight. We have only the memory left of their home-treasured sayings and laughter. The price of our loss shall be paid to our hands, not another’s hereafter. Neither the Alien nor Priest shall decide on it. That is our right. But … Continue reading A Son Goes To War – the grief of Rudyard Kipling
The world was young, the mountains green, No stain yet on the Moon was seen, No words were laid on stream or stone, When Durin woke and walked alone. The Song of Durin, JRR Tolkien In Innovation, the final installment of Peter Ackroyd’s entertaining and informative History of England, he writes: “The post-war years had … Continue reading One ring to rule us all – does Tolkien matter?
In the past, the major parties have seen independents as a passing nuisance that fades over time, like the Australian Democrats. Their only concern was their preference flow. Times are indeed changing; unless the major parties change, these independents are here to stay … There are no safe seats any more. Peter Beattie, former premier … Continue reading Hearing voices – is Teal the real deal?
When the day is done and the ball has spun in the umpire’s pocket away, and all remains in the groundsman’s pains for the rest of the time and a day. There’ll be one mad dog and his master, pushing for four with the spin, on a dusty pitch with two pounds six of willow … Continue reading When an old cricketer leaves the crease,
Australian literary critic and cultural studies writer Peter Craven has been described as both a “literary hack” and “one of the most prolific, erudite and opinionated voices in Australian literary circles”. In 2004 he was awarded the Pascall Prize for Australian Critic of the Year. whatever subject he applies his keyboard to, be it for iconic poets … Continue reading The year that changed literature
The best thing one can say about 2021 is that it is not 2020. i guess we’ll all be glad when twenty one is done. There were no bushfires to entertain us like last year, but the pandemic hung like a dark cloud over our everyday lives. In this, the second year of the pandemic, economies continue to … Continue reading That was that was year that was – It’s like déjà vu all over again
In September 2021, our beautiful, talented, wise friend and soul sister Krishna Sundari departed our world. I am remembering how we first met once upon a lifetime ago. She was Kathy Kellock in those days, and later reverted to her birth name, Kathy D’Amico – she was of American Italian heritage and the music was … Continue reading For Krishna Sundari -friends always and forever
no one leaves home until home is a sweaty voice in your ear saying- leave, run away from me now i don’t know what i’ve become but i know that anywhere is safer than here Somali poet Warsan Shire, Home Outside my regular, earthy existence here on our acreage in the midst an Australian forest, where … Continue reading Exit West – a hejira of hope
Never in modern times – since the Second World War – have there been so many refugees. There are over sixty nine million people around the world on the move today – people who have been forcibly displaced from their homes and are fleeing from persecution or conflict. Forty million people have been internally displaced within … Continue reading Ghayath al Madhoun – the agony of an exiled poet
In That Howling Infinite 