Saturday, March 11, 2017

New Poetry by David Ades










The Dictionary of Obsolete Words


swells fat
with words discarded like dead skin

except where

stoic keepers of language
gone underground

whisper obsolescences to each other —

remember kindness one might say
such a lovely word

once there were even random acts of kindness

and respect another might venture
sounding out its strangeness on the tongue

r   e   s   p   e   c   t

was even a kind of anthem for women
heralded in song —

and on and on through long nights

furtive      reverential
whilst they labour in their burrows amongst

reams of definitions

expansive meanings
embalming words to preserve them

antiquities to be saved

lest they become unspoken
muted      lost forever


- David Ades 2017


David Ades is an Australian poet recently returned from a long stint in the United States. We could be unkind and suggest that he got out just in time.

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