Selected poems
exaltation against despair
and the world is a wobbly stool
and spindly trees grow to the light
against all the odds of walls and overcrowding
and where there's a tree in your heart
a singing bird will come
and we write of hope
with nothing to write
yet urgent to write it
resignation syndrome
this poem is a repeat
written over and over
a story told again and again
the one thing different it has a revised title
two words
'resignation'
meaning uncomplaining endurance of sorrow or other evil
'syndrome' — a set of concurrent symptoms.
the concurrent symptoms for this poem:
vague staring into mid air
take to their bed
not eating or drinking regularly
not toileting
not responding
imagine a child without light in their eyes
it is not a flash back
it is now
it is the Australian people
it is us the wealthy nation
wanting our cake and to eat it too
what a cliche
using humans as a deterrent
fearful of fear
how many times do we need to tell it?
how many times do we need to hear it ?
how many times
until our hands and legs unshuffle
until hearts fire
our country blaze again
until we can imagine the human faces
staring through the bars
until we see eyes
children eyes
come alive again
until we know
it is our fears
that stifle the light
we want to know
goodness prevailis over evil
humanity is a breath of us
we are all in it
one breath
we breathe each others air
we are the people attempting to breathe
we are suffocating
in depriving breath from one human
we hold it from ourselves
silence is the power
secrecy is the power
yet humanity demanding to breathe together
is enough
is the power
after the massacre
when we wake to truths
that make our hearts beat fast
and walk the blood-red gravel track
that draws us down
to write the story on our heart
needle on our skin
to pin our bones into its frame
and stand
with Milton's fear
of blindness and denial
then grope and touch
the blood-stained earth
with spines of ironbark
and smell the stench of burnt flesh
where only eucalypt should waft
we weep
grapple in the dark
find that so tender song-line of truth
stirs a nations womb to birth
and know
there is no going back
Colleen Keating is a Sydney poet. She has two published award- winning collections of poetry: A Call to Listen and Fire on Water. She is also co-editor of two anthologies on behalf oft the NSW Women Writers network.