Section: «Poems»

Verse (ancient Greek ὁ στίχος — row, structure), a term in versification used in several meanings: artistic speech organized by division into rhythmically commensurate segments; poetry in the narrow sense; in particular, it implies the properties of versification of a particular tradition ("antique verse", "Akhmatova's verse", etc.); a line of poetic text organized according to a certain rhythmic pattern ("My uncle of the most honest rules").

Drought Year

That time of drought the embered airburned to the roots of timber and grass.The crackling lime-scrub would not bearand Mooni Creek was sand that..

© Judith Wright

Lyrebirds

Over the west side of the mountain,that’s lyrebird country.I could go down there, they say, in the early morning,and I’d see them, I’d hear them.Ten..

© Judith Wright

Woman To Child

You who were darkness warmed my fleshwhere out of darkness rose the seed.Then all a world I made in me;all the world you hear and seehung upon my..

© Judith Wright

Northern River

When summer days grow harshmy thoughts return to my river,fed by white mountain springs,beloved of the shy bird, the bellbird,whose cry is like..

© Judith Wright

Naked Girl And Mirror

This is not I. I had no body once-only what served my need to laugh and runand stare at stars and tentatively danceon the fringe of foam and wave and..

© Judith Wright

The Trains

Tunnelling through the night, the trains passin a splendour of power, with a sound like thundershaking the orchards, wakingthe young from a dream..

© Judith Wright

The Bull

In the olive darkness of the sally-treessilently moved the air from night to day.The summer-grass was thick with honey daisieswhere he, a curled god..

© Judith Wright

Train Journey

Glassed with cold sleep and dazzled by the moon,out of the confused hammering dark of the trainI looked and saw under the moon's cold sheetyour..

© Judith Wright

Egrets

Once as I travelled through a quiet evening,I saw a pool, jet-black and mirror-still.Beyond, the slender paperbarks stood crowding;each on its own..

© Judith Wright

Metho Drinker

Under the death of winter's leaves he lieswho cried to Nothing and the terrible nightto be his home and bread. 'O take from methe weight and..

© Judith Wright

Sonnet For Christmas

I saw our golden years on a black gale,our time of love spilt in the furious dust.'O we are winter-caught, and we must fail,'said the dark dream..

© Judith Wright

The Killer

The day was clear as fire,the birds sang frail as glass,when thirsty I came to the creekand fell by its side in the grass.My breast on the bright..

© Judith Wright

The Company Of Lovers

We meet and part now over all the world;we, the lost company,take hands together in the night, forgetthe night in our brief happiness, silently.We..

© Judith Wright

Bora Ring

The song is gone; the danceis secret with the dancers in the earth,the ritual useless, and the tribal storylost in an alien tale.Only the grass..

© Judith Wright

South Of My Days

South of my days' circle, part of my blood's country,rises that tableland, high delicate outlineof bony slopes wincing under the winter,low trees..

© Judith Wright

Late Spring

The moon drained white by daylifts from the hillwhere the old pear-tree fallen in stormsprings up in blossom still.Women believe in the moon:this..

© Judith Wright

The Surfer

He thrust his joy against the weight of the sea;climbed through, slid under those long banks offoam--(hawthorn hedges in spring, thorns in the face..

© Judith Wright

Failure Of Communion

What is the space between,enclosing us in oneunited person, yetdividing each alone.Frail bridges cross from eyeto eye, from flesh to flesh,from word..

© Judith Wright

Magpies

Along the road the magpies walkwith hands in pockets, left and right.They tilt their heads, and stroll and talk.In their well-fitted black and..

© Judith Wright

Woman To Man

The eyeless labourer in the night,the selfless, shapeless seed I hold,builds for its resurrection day---silent and swift and deep from sightforesees..

© Judith Wright

Legend

The blacksmith's boy went out with a rifleand a black dog running behind.Cobwebs snatched at his feet,rivers hindered him,thorn branches caught at..

© Judith Wright

Five Senses

Now my five sensesgather into a meaningall acts, all presences;and as a lily gathersthe elements together,in me this dark and shining,that stillness..

© Judith Wright

The Old Prison

The rows of cells are unroofed,a flute for the wind's mouth,who comes with a breath of icefrom the blue caves of the south.O dark and fierce day:the..

© Judith Wright

Request To A Year

If the year is meditating a suitable gift,I should like it to be the attitudeof my great- great- grandmother,legendary devotee of the arts,who having..

© Judith Wright

Estuary

To Rex HobcroftWind crosshatches shallow water.Paddocks rest in the sea's arm.Swamphens race through spiky grass.A wire fence leans, a crazy..

© Gwen Harwood