Bruce Dawe and the worn coins of memory

"Poetry for me doesn't come from some divine inspiration, all that sort of thing, I don't believe all that romantic stuff. A poet is not a shaman. My 'inspiration' comes from certain things that will take hold of me, bugging away at me, maybe national events, or maybe local things, or something really personal like love. I write a poem to sort something out, to come to terms with something, from the need to get that something inside out there, so that we can see its shape, its character. Sometimes when we see its shape, whether it's something good or something bad, it can help. Art is therapeutic, in a way, for all of us."

Bruce Dawe

The Wallet

by Bruce Dawe

Sometimes, it may be years, it may be less,

a life is merged with yours and then moves on,

but where and how and why may not be known

until much later word comes back

from that far universe as from a star,

and suddenly you're shaken with this sense

that certain lives which occur were once most

immediate to yours have lived and gone

and you have only lately learned

something of how they lived, that precious knowledge

coined in a realm whose currency

is rarely recognised any longer

as legal tender, those worn coins

as memory you can never trade

or spend for what they're worth while still

regretful for your own forgetfulness....

Bruce Dawe  is one of Australia's biggest selling and most popular poets. Articles about Dawe and his work are here, here and here.