Five Poems by Terry Wheeler

 

master kong

 

master kong found 

the way through

 

the precision of

ancient rites

 

perfect the music

of life and death

 

to change

the inner self

 

if you do not

serve the living

 

you cannot

respect the dead

 

the path to

learning is

 

a continuing struggle

for human dignity

 

 

minor chords

 

in minor chords

empty words end

 

wars fill voids

inconsolable lies begin

 

tempests are provoked

by butterfly wing

 

all sings from

an exploding dot

 

against the stars

black holes plot

 

in that darkness

the music stops

 

 

dove cottage

 

through dim rooms

tourists poke

 

where brother and

sister spoke

 

softly as they

broke bread

 

or neath flickering 

candles read

 

those long letters

from coleridge 

 

past gardens beyond

that ridge

 

they rambled dell

and fell

 

with william muttering 

to himself

 

 

andy

 

best part

is having 

 

all of it

shitty bits

 

fifteen 

 

minutes

of fame

 

waking up

to shame

 

discovering

 

the grit

to do better

 

not getting

bitter

 

 

harder harder harder

 

didn’t work

the medication

 

lou reed

yodelling 

 

foggy notion

 

pensive and 

fucked up

 

folk music

for those who

 

couldn’t stop

 

the bleeding 

mo tucker’s

 

percussion 

beating

 

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.