Words for a New Beginning
I remember the grainy start of a day, the light rotating on the clouds from the bottom-lit night orange to the dirty pink tops and faces, arranged behind the city silhouette somewhere near the origin of Parramatta road: the most primeval of Australian ways, the first of our journeys. Leaving…
Coffee and Freedom
Final Step Cafe, Melbourne. Murphy Street, Toorak. Double Ristretto. I only risk the double rist when great rewards are offered. Probably the best I’ve ever had – the real deal. It refused to be relegated to the background, to quietly shuffle to the corner of my consciousness behind the smells,…
On the Gradual Production of Thoughts Whilst Speaking
I was emailed this beautiful little essay by the convenor of a workshop I’m participating in next week. It’s on the value of discussing ideas with others rather than trying to work things out alone. The final paragraph on the foolishness of examinations is a particular highlight. Long-live…
Repentance
TURN thou us, O good Lord, and so shall we be turned… (Service of Commination, 1662 Book of Common Prayer) We are wrongdoers. The stark reality of this fact frames all our ethical theories, every human religion, and so many of our daily interactions. It is in the avoided eyes…
Meditations on a Tackle Box
The plastic box contains a disjointed collection of fishing tackle: the aggregate of summer holidays, a tangle of failed temptations. Take out the plastic hand-lines and stack to one side. The cork hand-line is more interesting. It can sit on its own. A small box full of lead. Hefty. Dense.…
The Bells
We used to live in a little cubical building, nave’s length from a bell tower. An aisle’s length, not quite, but every friday night it was a measured space, although not by paces; in concussions. From 6pm to 8pm the Ringers would gather – I imagine from curious little…
Elegy to a Beard
The Highwayman lies severed, cut down in the way, shorn from his mount. And the hand that did it rises trembling. And the eyes rise trembling to behold it To meet their accuser’s eyes wide. And trembling. It was a rough deed, done with razorrrs Watched with glass, that…