More swift than stern(for Peter Steele SJ)
For years you've taught us all those thingsTo disconcert imaginingsOr glint like hummingbirds' flashed wings,_______Dear Peter;None of us wanted your imaginings_______To be neater.
Discerning planets from prismatic angles(Far from drab academic wrangles);Your verse can prance but never tangles_______In granny-knotsFor all its curlicues and spangles,_______Of which there's lots.
You are sustained — I guess I know —By the Holy Spirit fluttering belowAnd you become its Papageno,_______Sagacious poet.If there's a conceptual furbelow_______You'll know it,
Taming that jigger as metaphor.But the merest bud or apple core,A cairngorm or a mouse's paw_______Can be your gristAs you give it several octanes more,_______Evangelist
Or prestidigitator ofA maplike sphere infused with love,Showered with subjunctives from above,_______Sublimely good.Even your Trinitarian faith_______Can serve as food
For those of us who blandly lackSuch nourishment, or at our backHear the vague tread, the clickety-clack,_______Of those great storiesAnd gorgeous King James Bible prose,_______In weakened flurries.
You've written, alas, that you'll no more travelTo hallowed sites where cameras marvel.Hearing this note, I'm stung to cavil_______That it can't be true,But no blip or snitch will ever unravel_______My love for you.
Chris Wallace-Crabbe AM is an Australian poet and Emeritus Professor in The Australian Centre, University of Melbourne. He has a distinguished career as poet, essayist, literary critic, teacher, cultural ambassador and advocate for the humanities and creative arts.