Vessel
"In
our weariness, tears cannot find their way out of us"
-
Andy Jackson
I am flesh wrapped around all things unwept, I am
salt water, brim-filled. No weary gulls any longer
land on me
to rest, even briefly. This reservoir
has no outlet, no closing shore. An eternal twilight
greys the
waves, awaiting the hush and solace
of nights that will never arrive. Bottomless, without
fish, the
reservoir patiently awaits a current,
a cleansing tide, anything that can move its thick
and sluggish
depth. The echo of invisible bells
ripple this surface, doubling themselves as they
sound out
horizons that simply are not there.
There is no raft, no boat, no trusted rope.
And
so I walk the dry world, liquid-skinned,
drowning in slow motion, just here, inside myself.
The Leaning Cedar
for Sheila
Kathleen
Though flattened now
there are hills here even
more ancient
than your grief.
They have subsided,
and until
they rise again
they hold the cedar's roots
deep in their
thick skin.
The first time, you knew
she was listening.
Since then she has moved
slowly closer
to you.
Her branches are trembling,
her troubled
bark strains
to speak. Next time,
her features
will be
there, right there, hidden
carefully
in the brief
and subtle sweep of leaves.
Now
the water calls my father
Now the water calls my father, the water
whispers to him as he sleeps, soaking up
his secrets. He knows that he is going
to be swept
away up north to where his
beloved waits. He cannot see the beach
from here but in his ears the water waves
his
name, and this last shore already
bears the imprints of his certain, steady
footsteps, even though he is yet to arrive.
Ian
McBryde
© Ian McBryde 2006
Canadian-born
Ian McBryde has been a long-term resident of Australia. He is
well published both nationally and overseas, and his poetry has
been translated into Japanese, Spanish, Greek, and French. He
has five mainstream collections published, as well as three chapbooks.
His fourth book Domain was shortlisted for The
Age Poetry Book of the Year in 2005, and his fifth mainstream
book of poetry, Slivers, a collection of one-line
poems, has just been published by Melbourne's Flat Chat Press.
His third CD of spoken-word, entitled At Land's End,
is about to be released byThe Still Company , which is an ongoing
collusion with Melbourne musician Greg Riddell. McBryde's next
collection, entitled The Adoption Order, will
be published by Five Islands Press in November of this year. Ian
McBryde is currently working on two new manuscripts and recording
new material.
In
addition, if you look Ian McBryde up by name on google.com, there
is a plethora of information there as well.
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