Taoist (Kenneth Slessor Poems)
THOSE friends of Lao-Tzu, those wise old menDozing all day in lemon-silken robes,With tomes of beaten jade spread knee to ...
Kenneth Slessor Poems (73 Poems)
Thieves’ Kitchen (Kenneth Slessor Poems)
GOOD roaring pistol-boys, brave lads of gold,Good roistering easy maids, blown cock-a-hoopOn floods of tavern-steam, I greet you! DrunkWith wild ...
To Myself (Kenneth Slessor Poems)
AFTER all, you are my rather tedious hero;It is impossible (damn it!) to avoidLooking at you through keyholes.But come! At ...
A Bushranger (Kenneth Slessor Poems)
Jackey Jackey gallops on a horse like a swallowWhere the carbines bark and the blackboys hollo.When the traps give chase ...
Country Towns (Kenneth Slessor Poems)
Country towns, with your willows and squares,And farmers bouncing on barrel maresTo public houses of yellow woodWith "1860" over their ...
Rubens’ Innocents (Kenneth Slessor Poems)
IF all those tumbling babes of heaven,Plump cherubim with blown cheeks,Could vault in these warm skies, or leavenOur starry silent ...
Wild Grapes (Kenneth Slessor Poems)
The old orchard, full of smoking air,Full of sour marsh and broken boughs, is there,But kept no more by vanished ...
Fixed Ideas (Kenneth Slessor Poems)
RANKS of electroplated cubes, dwindling to glitters,Like the other pasture, the trigonometry of marble,Death's candy-bed. Stone caked on stone,Dry pyramids ...
Waters (Kenneth Slessor Poems)
THIS Water, like a sky that no one uses,Air turned to stone, ridden by stars and birdsNo longer, but with ...
Mephistopheles Perverted (Kenneth Slessor Poems)
(Or Goethe for the Times)ONCE long ago lived a FleaWho kept such a fine, fat King,Not that he held with ...
Lesbia’s Daughter (Kenneth Slessor Poems)
LESBIA'S daughter, I shall tell no lie,Here's no fit amber for such a dainty fly.Let them embalm your beauty whoso ...
The Night Ride (Kenneth Slessor Poems)
Gas flaring on the yellow platform; voices running up and down;Milk-tins in cold dented silver; half-awake I stare,Pull up the ...
The Ghost (Kenneth Slessor Poems)
"BEES of old Spanish winePipe at this Inn to-night,Music and candleshineFill the dim chambers . . . ."Fans toss and ...
Burying Friends (Kenneth Slessor Poems)
BURYING friends is not a pomp,Not, indeed, Roman:Lacking the monument,Heroic stone;Nor is it an obscuring parasol,The pad of customary gloves ...
Polarities (Kenneth Slessor Poems)
SOMETIMES she is like sherry, like the sun through a vessel of glass,Like light through an oriel window in a ...
City Nightfall (Kenneth Slessor Poems)
SMOKE upon smoke; over the stone lipsOf chimneys bleeding, a darker fume descends.Night, the old nun, in voiceless pity bendsTo ...
Full Orchestra (Kenneth Slessor Poems)
MY words are the poor footmen of your pride,Of what you cry, you trumpets, each to eachWith mouths of air; ...
Snowdrops (Kenneth Slessor Poems)
The Snowdrop Girl in fields of snowdrops walks,Whiter than foam, deeper than waters flowing,Flakes of wild milk gone blowing,Snowing on ...
Next Turn (Kenneth Slessor Poems)
No pause! The buried pipes ring out,The flour-faced Antic runs from sight;Now Columbine, with scarlet pout,Floats in the smoking moon ...
Chessmen (Kenneth Slessor Poems)
CHAFING on flags of ebony and pearl,My paladins are waiting. Loops of smokeStoop slowly from the coffee-cups, and curlIn thin ...
New Magic (Kenneth Slessor Poems)
At last I know-it's on old ivory jars,Glassed with old miniatures and garnered once with musk.I've seen those eyes like ...
An Inscription For Dog River (Kenneth Slessor Poems)
OUR general was the greatest and bravest of generals.For his deeds, look around you on this coast-Here is his name ...
Toilet Of A Dandy (Kenneth Slessor Poems)
TRANSPORTS of filed nerves; a wistful cough;One sensual hairbrush reluctantly concludesThe Great Harry's excruciations and beatitudes,Delicately and gravely putting things ...
Cannibal Street (Kenneth Slessor Poems)
"BUY, who'll buy," the pedlar sings,"Bones of beggars, loins of kings,Ribs of murder, haunch of hate,And Beauty's head on a ...
Adventure Bay (Kenneth Slessor Poems)
SOPHIE'S my world . . . my arm must soon or laterLike Francis Drake turn circumnavigator,Stem the dark tides, take ...
Trade Circular (Kenneth Slessor Poems)
(To the Poets' Ladies)SHALL I give you the Bourbon-sugarsOf sherry and yellow skyAnd a girl in a country curricleMerrily bowling ...
Talbingo (Kenneth Slessor Poems)
"TALBINGO RIVER"-as one says of bones:"Captain" or "Commodore" that smelt gunpowderIn old engagements no one quite believesOr understands. Talbingo had ...
Crustacean Rejoinder (Kenneth Slessor Poems)
TAKE your great light away, your music end;I'm off to feed myself as quick as I can.You're perfectly impossible to ...
A Sunset (Kenneth Slessor Poems)
THE old Quarry, Sun, with bleeding scales,Flaps up the gullies, wets their crystal pebbles,Floating with waters of gold; darkness exhalesBrutishly ...
Sensuality (Kenneth Slessor Poems)
FEELING hunger and cold, feelingFood, feeling fire, feelingPity and pain, tastingTime in a kiss, tastingAnger and tears, touchingEyelids with lips, ...