Saturday, 10 September 2022

Four Poems by Terry Wheeler

 


the old people

 

nowhere is

somewhere

 

to those who

call it home

 

their dreaming

lines

 

criss-cross

this continent

 

the things we

cannot see

 

they call

divine

 

for tens 

of millennia

 

they listen

to the land

 

 

while sheep bleat

 

when climate change

drove the huns off

the steppe

 

the romans were

defeated on 

the plains of thrace

 

and tribes poured in

to the empire’s

western provinces 

 

persia and rome

formed an alliance 

and built a wall

 

over a hundred miles

long between the caspian

and black seas

 

with thirty forts

and a canal fifteen 

feet deep

 

but gaul fell

and the visigoths

sacked rome 

 

saint jerome

in jerusalem wrote

with disbelief 

 

the city that 

had conquered 

the whole 

 

world had 

itself been 

conquered

 

 

new day

 

(1)

 

the going

back is

 

where we

learn to

 

begin again 

 

as we wake

to each day’s

 

blank page

and write

 

our journey 

 

with this

courage 

 

we have

inherited 

 

(2)

 

blessings 

count them

 

sent to

make us

 

quiver

 

timing is

an art

 

one part

attitude 

 

but mostly 

 

fortune

when we’re 

 

feeling

brave

 

 

walt whitman

 

the spartan

wants to

 

declutter

cleanse

 

the body

 

the monk

cherishes

 

the books 

and wine

 

dichotomy 

 

wars within

us we

 

entertain

multitudes




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.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Three Poems by John Patrick Robbins

  You're Just Old So you cling to anything that doesn't remind you of the truth of a chapter's close or setting sun. The comfort...