The last time I read this it was compulsory to pit my mind against it

on
This time part of it rose up as if in a dream and I longed for nothing more than to turn around, run back to the harbour, witness it for myself.


An excerpt from Five Bells by Kenneth Slessor.


'Deep and dissolving verticals of light
Ferry the falls of moonshine down. Five bells
Coldly rung out in a machine's voice. Night and water
Pour to one rip of darkness, the Harbour floats
In the air, the Cross hangs upside-down in water.'

Comments

TimT said…
You just made me go back and reread it, and I still have no idea what Slessor means most of the time.

But I love his obscurantist melodrama: 'The sodden ecstasies of rectitude', ffs!
17/06/2011, 12:04
M L Jassy said…
It could be worth reading the new novel by Gail Jones called "Five Bells' to see if it makes any more sense than the poem.
27/06/2011, 09:20
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