Gelassenheit
Waiting, something openswithout our willing it,without force.Calm, in half-light, the horizoncrosses our sight,the openingof a dawn, a memory,half-hoped foryour metaphors coming homefamiliar ghosts, dreamed ofas they cross through the loved fieldsand dry gullies,bringing with them unspoken conversation,new thought suspendedwithout knowing,awaited, but unattended.A vastness of silent notesaccompanies us, a symphonywe have longed to hearof belief far beyondour interpretations, opento the swinging movement, and the restingbetween here and any horizonyou have ever dreamed, seeingthe other sideof this surrounding opennesscoming to meet us,this spaciousness which is halted and held,where everything mergesimmeasurable in its own resting.
Lyn McCredden
Deity
ApostasyA decree for heroismYour fatal lesson for hereticsEven the Kubla Khan,Its dome decreeBecause reality was an enemySurely enmity is yoursWhen young hands fumble at adulthoodIt smells of invasionAs if a holy allianceBetween someone else's territoryAnd your epitaphProphets of air and textAll the more sanctimoniousWhen no one is there to undo it.Yet small hands joinedBecomes an unbreakable crowdThe burning can melt shrapnelThey bring you downAnd call it worship a legacyOthers call it truncated
Kerry Ridgway
What I must cling to
sight's transaction with lightthrob and swerve of voicesrain's scent on hot pavementtiny spider's web artmorning mist hanging coolmoist odour of mown hay
freefalling in love's shockstars shooting a scoured skyforest breakfast's echoeswaterfall's silver plungequick pulse of silken skinbaby's chuckling wet kiss
strange train journey through snowdawn in a great citygleeful flea market findsstark abbey's moon shadowsache of harbour foghornsthunder's warlord fanfare
estuary boats tide-beacheddistant wildflowers hazeheavy silence of leaveswhite house with blue shutterswinter hearth's lambent blazecreaking of this old floor
Ian C. Smith
Lyn McCredden teaches literary and cultural studies at Deakin University, Melbourne. She is the author of a number of critical texts on the sacred, including Intimate Horizons (with Bill Ashcroft and Frances Devlin-Glass) and Luminous Moments: the Contemporary Sacred.
Kerry Ridgway is a Melburnian who enjoys writing articles and poetry. She has written a book and screenplay, and enjoys writing about anything in any form.
Ian C. Smith lives in the Gippsland Lakes region of Victoria. His work has appeared in Axon:Creative Explorations,The Best Australian Poetry, Five Poetry Journal, Island, Red Room Company, Southerly, and Westerly. His fifth book is