Issue #13 of the Communion Arts Journal is now available online.

Communion is produced by Jane Williams and Ralph Wessman from Walleah Press, an independent literary publisher based in Tasmania. The current issue offers a selection of poetry, stories and essays from Australian and overseas writers. Among them is my poem, Grown-Grey Eyes.

 

Grown-Grey Eyes

He leaves the silence between the walls

pushing his dependable blue wheel

barrow past the angled barn

past the faithful timber posts

of the stockyard, out

across the insistent paddock

to the gate that does not close.

As he walks, he finds the sky

increasingly resembles

his recently grown-grey eyes

until in time it begins

draping itself about him.

With his dripping hands working

steadily at their task he recalls

how grateful he was

to hear she had given

his favourite red rain

coat to her lover.

 

In writing this poem, I was seeking to combine the immediacy and directness of the Imagist writers with the more personal and emotion-filled style favoured by many writers later in the 20th century.

I think this combination of image and emotion does capture something of the tension involved in dealing with day-to-day objects and tasks at a time when your mind is overcome with drama or tragedy.

Communion Arts Journal is always a good read and this issue includes a personal account from poet and performer, Harry Laing, of his experiences during the bushfires in New South Wales earlier this year. Please follow the link and take some time to explore what Communion Arts Journal has to offer.