Libation

By Earl Livings

'If there is one word that unites this collection, it is longing – which edges into poems that reconcile science and spiritual paganism, reassess the isolation of childhood and even those that celebrate the natural world. This yearning for a bone-deep knowing is perfectly suited to Livings’s measured lyricism which, while rooted

• Language: English
• Publisher: Debbie Lee
• Release date: Sep 22, 2018
• ISBN: 9781760416164

Earl Livings

Edwina Harvey is a writer and freelance editor specializing in speculative fiction

Book preview

Libation

Libation

Earl Livings

Ginninderra Press

Libation

ISBN 978 1 76041 616 4

Copyright © text Earl Livings 2018

Cover photo: Earl Livings

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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 2018 by

Ginninderra Press

PO Box 3461 Port Adelaide 5015

www.ginninderrapress.com.au

Contents

Libation

Acknowledgements

About the Author

For my children, Chad, Kelly, Robert and Patrick

‘As a man is, so he sees. As the Eye is formed, such are its Powers.’

William Blake, ‘Letter to the Rev Dr. Trusler, August 23, 1799’

Libation

Libation

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To the earth my ancestors

Offered the best or the first –

Hindquarter, sheaf of wheat, blood –

Respect for those spirits felt

In tree, stream, stone, mystery:

How and why sun and moon dance,

How creatures and crops follow

The seasons, where the dead go.

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In my childhood, taught and blessed

By revelation dogma,

I gave thanks to that one god

I soon judged didn’t exist,

The bounty at our table

Not his to bestow, but ours –

The marvel of jump-stump ploughs,

The charge of superphosphates,

The chain gears in abattoirs –

Man’s inventions helping man.

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This full-moon night I open

A bottle of Welsh whisky,

Pour some on the rooted earth

Of our apple tree, listen

To the wind jostle the leaves

Of my thoughts. I have watched man

Land on the moon and track signs

For alpha and omega

In the folds of particles

And the spiral attractions

Of galaxies, flowers, shells.

Have heard reasons for murder

In common streets, holy sites,

The control of hierarchies.

Have felt the chaos designs

Of weather and human touch.

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Though I can never be sure

Of anything, life itself

A mask out of mystery,

I have once or twice found grace

In meditation and out

Of the corner of an eye,

In forest, at seashore,

With lover or newborn,

A scintillation, a keen trace,

Unplucked string resonating

To a distant rare music,

One part ceremony, one part dance,

Presence that encourages

And deserves honour, some chance

For alliance – planet, self,

Winds that rattle, disappear.

Cleave

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The boy rests on the soft slope watching stars entice him, incite him. Hands folded behind his head, he hears the insistent buzz of insects as they hunt, are hunted. One Doppler-dives towards him. He does not move, does not change his breathing as it flies near, brief interruption of light from a distant sun. He watches the sky, his thoughts. Sometimes thought fades as eyes close and breathing slows. Then call of night bird or screech of insect flight brings him to the moment, and he studies the