David Barnes has been an active poet since1996 and published in Australia and at many online poetry venues in America, England, and France. His work has appeared in Paris/Atlantic, anthologies released in 2001 & 2002 by Empowa Inc, Firefly Magazine, Anthology Number (ll), Inside Out: A Gathering of Poets, Blackmailpress, and The Australian Journal of Arts, Ethics & Literature: Issue No. 12. He also publishes and edits a poetry journal called Numbat pdu.
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Pre`cis
Shade moves to the rise
and fall of the sun...
It has no profile, no force
shape of its own... no colour, motion;
yet casts a never-ending
array...of intricate patterns
on shifting landscapes:
and I shall not be in rage
when my shade fades, in
the dying sun;
...who will ever know?
I basked in sun... shadow soothed,
at twilight...
Let the glitter of stars and time
fill your eyes...
let the end of all define you, against...
the dying light.
Woman of the hills & valleys
I see the old woman
shopping on the marbled lined floors,
trembling on her walker
support hose aged & black... selecting
unblemished fruit and vegetables;
chatting
with other woman in the market place...
she departs
remembering to catch bus, or to walk back home,
in time for a cup of tea...
she forgets ,
keeps walking past other houses, only to turn back
to her neighbours home... as empty
as her own.
For the man
who sat at leisure for forty years,
discussing olive trees, and far away hills,
is not there.
Thoughts in winter
In autumn
I always thought you would never leave...
but now it's winter.
The wisteria has shed all its autumn leaves
a carpet down the driveway...
against the verandah beam, the creeper
is shaky at the far end.
You told me
autumn would never end...
that I should stop smoking that it would kill me.
Words,
still in my head, recollections
of middle age.
