Ceremony (The Poem of the Dead)

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The poem of the dead is made of this: dirt or fire, bones and skin, worms or ash, favourite things, a book, a ring, a guitar or just a toy, a song to carry out the coffin out, tears and wine and tea that’s not too strong, a cruel blue sky, consoling rain, the weather as a voice, one shiny car, quiet movements made, a stunning Bible line, a few lyrics from Dylan Thomas’s light, white flowers, a Stop sign, a priest whose words just sink away, the incense in the air, a friend who laughs, a mother’s cries, a father’s face of stone, a hand upon your shoulder now, a strange car ride, a bird’s cold tune, a child who lost another, cakes and bread and garden chairs, the note they left, the will they wrote, the things that we have heard, their favourite clothes, and when it passed, take a handful of this soil, the milk is here, the beer is there, an aunt from way up north will speak to you, new machinery creaks them into fire, a curtain closes slow, a hallowed be thy name is called, the sunlight on the graves, smoke rises from a chimney slow, we turn our eyes and walk away, by night the loved ones, still, are gathered around the songs we used to know, the family lives alone with loss, the ceremony is tomorrow. – Mark Mordue Continue reading →

Giving Up The Ghost

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IN one of his greatest poems, People, Yevgeny Yevtushenko says, “In any man who dies there dies with him/ his first snow and kiss and fight”. Part of an intense recognition of our mortality, the poem also deals with the power of memory and the role of art as Yevtushenko admits: “The secret worlds are not regenerated./ And every time again and again/ I make my lament against destruction.” Having encountered the loss of three people in the past year — all by suicide — it’s no wonder the Russian’s poem should speak to me. At the same time I was struck by a recent viewing of Clint Eastwood’s film Hereafter, and its focus on George Lonegan (Matt Damon), a spirit medium trying to escape the burden of his relationship with the dead Continue reading →

When Cool Goes Cold

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The very thought of writing this story made me feel like vomiting over my laptop and down my flannelette shirt. Yet another lifestyle piece on Cool with a capital “C”, another voice-deadening set of icons whose style and attitude should be genuinely rebellious and outside easy mainstream embrace Continue reading →

Network Freedom

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Who are you? In a year bookended by James Cameron’s Avatar and David Fincher’s The Social Network, this was the central theme, as our lives were absorbed into an accelerating digital culture made up of iPhones, iPads, iTunes, Twitter, Wii, X-Box, PlayStation, YouTube and Facebook Continue reading →

Daniel Lanois Live at the Basement

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DANIEL LANOIS The Basement, Sydney 12.04.2006 Daniel Lanois is a strange kettle of fish. You wouldn’t call his voice magic, but there’s a lot going on in his mind and how it’s tuned. Does it bear repeating he is best known as a producer, mentored by Brian Eno, crucial to career-changing work from U2, Bob Dylan and Emmylou Harris Continue reading →

American Frankenstein: Bret Easton Ellis

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If I were to have a nervous breakdown and come apart, I can see how reading too much Bret Easton Ellis would help me along. I’ve been spending the past few weeks wandering through his novels, alternatively amused by his wit (there is never enough emphasis on just how funny he can be), depressed by his detachment, and ultimately disgusted, somehow soiled, by the violence he elaborates with such clinical precision. Continue reading →

snow prayer

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Animal without grace, God- fearing, something or other, I don’t know – but I don’t want a truth on my knees unless I go there to kneel and say my thanks of my own volition. Put it another way Sunlight is one of the ecstasies of winter on the skin, on the face to stop the heart beaching itself on a bellyful of desires Continue reading →