Patrick Dennis Poems

Yesterday the thunder
roared out of the West.
It drew near
to be swallowed on the clear air
...

A gaggle of ragged folk gather around
the Salvo van at the edge of the park.
One catches my eye -
he radiates the agnostic look of the lost.
...

That Korean man yesterday the terrorists beheaded
endured a terrible dread. And I, a being in hindsight,
live it today through the black letter and ask:
How can I help his horror
...

Out of the Egyptian bondage
of metre and rhyme
across the free wilderness
striking and failing for springs
...

Australians distrust words:
words, being mere symbols, are not real.

Australians distrust emotions:
...

If I believe it - and feel it -
and by saying it I believe it
and believe in saying it
I can make it true! - True! - True! - Real!
...

A brown wrapper or a green thread
is a gift when time rises to a purpose.
Only the heart can give
a gift; and only the heart can take -
...

You talk in riddles
like oracles of many strange gods;
and we, those strange few who read you,
bow down.
...

1.

It fails me:
somewhere between the setting forth and the night camp
...