#peter porter

[undinesea]

The fire will come out of the sun and I shall look in the heart of it.

Peter Porter, “Non Piangere, Liù,” from Australian Verse: An Oxford Anthology

[albessan]

La poesía es una de las pocas artes que no está amenazada por no tener una audiencia.

Peter Porter

[eliamatrell]

— PETER PORTER, from The Historians Call Up Pain.

[gilgai]

Once the difficulty had been to cross the Divide, to follow spurs which seemed to end in air, to swivel about the cobwebs where the creeks dripped below their spiders to a contrary encircling of your steps— to keep on through the undergrowth with only stripes of sun above, to get beyond these endless-seeming vistas and look out on the plain which might contain a sea, a minareted island, a mirage, whose common epithet was Felix, appointed place of all felicity. There are, of course, bland natures back at home, whose only earnest is a theory that your expedition means to straighten out the land with names, to fit a grid of the accounting gods on plastic otherness. You'll have to give a hostage to them—do it now. Here by Disappointment Bluff, gaze across the Vale of Sixty to Uncanniness; beyond the rock-strewn creek is an escarpment called Incalculable and the fields are more elided than Elysian— mark this tree the point of going back and set it in the map—Porter's Retreat— the place at which all further progress ceases to have consequence.

Peter Porter, from “Porter’s Retreat”

[literarylondonhq]

Literary Requests 1.

Nick Hennegan takes your requests, with new music, poetry and some classics too! www.BohemianBritain.com  Esme White, London based, New York singer/songwriter. Her new single is featured.

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[timothywinters]

The Polar DEW has just warned that

A nuclear rocket strike of

At least one thousand megatons

Has been launched by the enemy

Directly at our major cities.

This announcement will take

Two and a quarter minutes to make,

You therefore have a further

Eight and a quarter minutes

To comply with the shelter

Requirements published in the Civil

Defence Code - section Atomic Attack.

A specially shortened Mass

Will be broadcast at the end

Of this announcement -

Protestant and Jewish services

Will begin simultaneously -

Select your wavelength immediately

According to instructions

In the Defence Code. Do not

Tale well-loved pets (including birds)

Into your shelter - they will consume

Fresh air. Leave the old and bed-

Ridden, you can do nothing for them.

Remember to press the sealing

Switch when everyone is in

The shelter. Set the radiation

Aerial, turn on the Geiger barometer.

Turn off your television now.

Turn off your radio immediately

The services end. At the same time

Secure explosion plugs in the ears

Of each member of your family. Take

Down your plasma flasks. Give your children

The pills marked one and two

In the C D green container, then put

Them to bed. Do not break

The inside airlock seals until

The radiation All Clear shows

(Watch for the cuckoo in your

Perspex panel), or your District

Touring Doctor rings your bell.

If before this your air becomes

Exhausted or if any of your family

Is critically injured, administer

The capsules marked 'Valley Forge'

(Red pocket in No 1 Survival Kit)

For painless death. (Catholics

Will have been instructed by their priests

What to do in this eventuality.)

This announcement is ending. Our President

Has already given orders for

Massive retaliation - it will be

Decisive. Some of us may die.

Remember, statistically

It is not likely to be you.

All flags are flying fully dressed

On Government buildings - the sun is shining.

Death is the least we have to fear.

We are all in the hands of God,

Whatever happens happens by His will.

Now go quickly to your shelters.

-Your Attention Please, Peter Porter

[garbagecannon]

I think about this at least once a day

[viiciouscircle]

“The rooms and days we wandered through

Shrink in my mind to one – there you

Lie quite absorbed by peace – the calm

Which life could not provide is balm

In death. Unseen by me, you look

Past bed and stairs and half-read book

Eternally upon your home,

The end of pain, the left alone.

I have no friend, no intercessor,

No psychopomp or true confessor

But only you who know my heart

In every cramped and devious part –

Then take my hand and lead me out,

The sky is overcast by doubt,

The time has come, I listen for

Your words of comfort at the door,

O guide me through the shoals of fear –

‘Fürchte dich nicht, ich bin bei dir.’ “

— excerpt from Peter Porter, Exequy