Patrick White Poems

I showed up with a rose and you said
it was the wrong colour. I showed up
with my head on a silver platter
and you asked as you danced for another
...

On a barren hilltop in the moonlight,
as if the soul of the rock it’s rooted in
had been torn out of it by the nape of the neck
the broken pine bears its agony alone
...

For Caitlin Fisher

Sitting on a park bench in Stewart Park
directly behind the jumping statue of Big Ben
...

Let it go, let it go, let it go, as if my soul
were sweeping out a season of unleafing,
sodden feelings, sodden hearts, the rose ruined,
cumbrous clouds gusting over the eyelashes
...

for Rebekah Garland

The brighter the light, the deeper the shadow.
Shine. And anyone who can see will follow.
...

Feel like there's a beast in the darkness
eating my eyes.
I'm a moon-bull
at a crossroads of solar swords
...

Just go. Just go. I don’t want to do an autopsy
on your voodoo doll. Leave me to the asters and stars
on my long walks into the fields and woods around here.
It was your fault, your fault, as you keep pleading.
...

One earth, one third eye, one wild iris of life in space.
Nacreously pearled out of the darkness of death,
No, not even death, but the godhead of nothing,
This our crib, our grave, when our flesh falls like snow
...

Taking an upbeat flambuoyant approach toward catastrophe.
A good attitude to go on perishing by.
Adept at it.
Like Atlantis happy enough
...