Darkness lifts like a curtain
Raised to the rooftop
Of palladium
A stage
Dancers, jugglers, seers and wanderers
Mill around in their thousands
Wondering who will speak
On that day
Mumbling and speculation
Fill the open sky with heat
Distress and devastation
Trampled under feet
No authoritative voice resounds
The cacophany dies to a whisper
The only words recited 'tween
The lover and the listener
'I can't do the talk
like they talk on the TV
And I can't do a love song
like the way it's meant to be
I can't do everything
but I'd do anything for you
I can't do anything
except be in love with you
And all I do is miss you
and the way we used to be
All I do is keep the beat
and bad company
All I do is kiss you
through the bars of a rhyme
Juliet, I'd do the stars with you
any time'
Lyrics by Mark Knopfler
No matter how well
They're put together
Words have a way
Of leading astray
Down rabbit holes
Up Toad's willows
In dark with mole
Long on the nose
On the run again
Like Banksia men
Up and out
Flying elephant spout
High as a kite
With a bosom friend
Try as we might
Gone round river bend
We offer our cheers
To a friend big ears
Lift off in the sky
On a lemonade high
Still to return
From doldrums we yearn
Come dally with me
Round the giving tree
Brave is the one
With words so few
But ears and arms
To live stories
With you
By Emma Haynes and Lilian James
A waratah
My favourite
By far
Opening fingers
Delicious red
Planted firmly
Sandy bed
No need
For nurture
Spoil or fuss
No matter how
She tempted us
Hardy yet
Delicate
Glorious
Display
To rival
A rose
In her own
Stunning way
A rainforest
Soaking in
Air thick moist
Beauty prickles
The skin
Abundant growth
Above and below
Every nook
Covered over
A place for every
Living thing
For every falling
Another grows
‘This is the spirit that Beauty must ever induce: wonderment and a delicious trouble, longing and love and a trembling that is all delight.’ – Plotinus
From ‘My Year of Living Vulnerably,’ by Rick Morton, p.153.
A fleeting moment
Made more beautiful
By brevity
Forever changed
Two who held
The greatest story
Ever untold
Always remaining open
To future possibility
With love
Strange how the music
Can say what lies inside
Better than own lips
Better still, silence
Reveals a sonnet
Of secrets
That moment between words
When the body speaks
To affirm or contradict
Knowing moves
Of safety
Alone with thoughts
On the edge of wild
Never live lonely
Affect writes thesis
Of sanity
Wondering brain waves
Sing on wind and wire
Telegraph of love
Words no limit
Of sound
Don't Stop.
Mastery of the will
One step at a time
Stopping me from
Suspending rhyme
Unconsious games
Tend to the mind
Leaving all behind
The storyline
Is you
Silver words
Stick to the tongue
Measured in spoons
Of unending love
The only story
To write
Between the sheets
A double edged knife
Prolific dripping
Mesmerized sweet
Not an eye sees
Silent ending
Comfort words
Never reaching
Ears intended
Soft receiving
Still quick wit
Over dining tables
Immeasureable
In the mind
Ink for the quill
Divine
Count the stars of heaven 