Excalibur's Return

By Maurice Whelan

“If stillness can be tasted, precious memories will return, such as poetry once learned by heart, which in Maurice Whelan’s case told of King Arthur receiving his sword Excalibur from the maiden in the lake. If silence can be heard, a poetry in life will breathe, as in this poet’s observation about a dawn which ‘…h

• Language: English
• Publisher: Debbie Lee
• Release date: Mar 1, 2017
• ISBN: 9781760413101

Book preview

Excalibur’s Return

Excalibur’s Return

Maurice Whelan

Ginninderra Press

Contents

Excalibur’s Return

Afterword

Acknowledgements

Also by Maurice Whelan

Excalibur’s Return

ISBN 978 1 76041 310 1

Copyright © text Maurice Whelan 2011

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All rights reserved. No part of this ebook may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the copyright holder. Requests for permission should be sent to the publisher at the address below.

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First published 2011

Reprinted 2017

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Ginninderra Press

PO Box 3461 Port Adelaide SA 5015

www.ginninderrapress.com.au

To Richard

at whose side I ran up Mount Cargill

My mind to me a kingdom is,

Such perfect joy therein I find,

That it excels all other bliss

That earth affords or grows by kind.

Edward Dyer (1550–1607)

Poetry…is not a branch of authorship: it is ‘the stuff of which our life is made’ all that is worth remembering in life, is the poetry of it… Poetry is that fine particle within us, that expands, rarefies, refines, raises our whole being: without it ‘man’s life is poor as beast’s’.

William Hazlitt (1778–1830)

Excalibur’s Return

Snowdrop Moon

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High in the night sky

a full low-sheen moon

glows in the light

of the hidden sun.

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Down under a leafy canopy

a silent snowdrop

bends its face

to the earth.

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On the tip of each

pure white petal

nature’s paintbrush

paints a fleck of green.

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A tiny lantern

offering beauty and light

unchanged by night

and winter’s darkness.

Dawn in