Andrew McMillan

Andrew McMillan Poems

Andrew McMillan Biography

Andrew McMillan (29 December 1957 – 28 January 2012) was an Australian writer, music journalist and musician who was based in Darwin, Northern Territory from 1988. Andrew McMillan was born on 29 December 1957 and was educated in Brisbane, Queensland. McMillan moved to the Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory in 1988 after travelling with the bands Midnight Oil and the Warumpi Band on the Blackfella-Whitefella tour of remote Aboriginal communities in the NT. That experience led him to write the book Strict Rules: The Blackfella-Whitefella Tour which was published in 1988 (Hodder & Stoughton) and reprinted in 1992 (Sceptre))

The Best Poem Of Andrew McMillan

A Gift

for the ones I never touched for the ones
who wanted to watch films who wanted
to talk who wanted silence and said I
talked too much for the one I saw
weeks after laughing for the one who served
me coffee and didn't recognise my hands
for the optimistic ones who write

their names on toilet walls the ones
I never called for the ones I called
who didn't answer who left our love
suspended from the ceiling hooks
of that meatmarket city for the ones
who left and settled down the ones who wanted
knowledge were curious who gained something

from each encounter used each other
who took what they needed for everyone
they hurt who felt burned out the ones who
didn't realise everyone was burning
the ones who never slept who died nightly
the ones who said they'd kill for it for all
of them a gift we were young we only had our bodies

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