Wednesday, March 12, 2014

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 herehere and here.

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