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ARTS AND CULTURE

The possibility of poetry

  • 29 April 2020
Selected poems  

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You have to love happiness so hard it hurts

and even this for you is happiness

 

even when your demons

bless 'em

 

meet and have a drink together

playing a little two-up with your life

 

don’t worry about it

enjoy yourself

 

the view as you’re being tossed this way

and that

 

sky

then sand

 

spectacular really

so spectacular that it matters little

 

if anyone’s placed

a hefty bet on you

 

or if you meet your end while soaring up

or tumbling down.

 

 

The Comrades

 

I met massive friends

on the clandestine boulevards

 

slow they were

as oil and tomatoes

 

happy as beans

from the secret gardens of Sardinia

 

fearless

and inky

 

red and redolent

as wine.

 

 

Testament

 

To have been given even

just the possibility of poetry

 

that was enough

that was more than enough.

Dr John Falzon is Senior Fellow, Inequality and Social Justice at Per Capita. He is a sociologist, poet and social justice advocate and was national CEO of the St Vincent de Paul Society in Australia from 2006 to 2018. He is a member of the Australian Services Union.  
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