Monday, 7 March 2022

Three Poems by Terry Wheeler

 


genesis

 

it begins not

in a garden but

with those changes between

high and low water marks

where land will be

made and unmade

 

the crux is plastic

rather than pictorial

three dimensions being buffeted

by give and take

where the organic

explodes into organism

 

a deed done's a fraction

of the doer's sum

thoughts and dreams are

the greater part

where memory ceases

imagination becomes


 

 

loch doghra

 

secrets we’re born with

though they fray will not

wither in our blood

still dimly they bray with

bold echoes from ancient days

when leaps were made

 

and many fell

even finn went grey

by the lake of sorrow

when his lover’s 

jealous sister cast 

that withering spell

 

feel the great hunger here

these mass graves will shake

tears from complacent eyes

across troubled waters

our bewildered ancestors

come seeking redemption



 

lost horizon 

 

(1)

 

your eyes

reflecting 

 

a history 

that never

 

came into

 

being are

swimming 

 

back not

seeing now

 

seeking that

 

step forsaken 

mathematics

 

unforgiving 

fruitless

 

(2)

 

plants or

clouds

 

the shapes 

undefined 

 

unconnected 

 

where dreams

are located

 

the hint of

mountains 

 

too far

 

a suggestion 

imprecise an

 

invitation to

deception 

 

(3)

 

the early

settlers 

 

were loud

everything 

 

native 

 

flattened to

the ground

 

trusting 

camouflage 

 

destruction 

 

ensued an

attempt at

 

recreation 

ill conceived 

 

(4)

 

weathered

as your 

 

birthplace

raised to

 

a culture

 

at odds

an absurdity 

 

inconsistency 

in the narrative 

 

still beats 

 

underneath 

a great division 

 

within its

mythology






Terry Wheeler -  After graduating from law school in the late 1980s Terry worked in the Australian public service for decades. He was inspired to write after seeing Michael Dransfield poems in The Australian newspaper when a teenager. Terry has been published in Australia and abroad since retiring. He lives in Brisbane when not travelling.

 

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