The Sitting Room
The past is a house of artefacts
I dig them out of rooms so vast
That rivers flow between their walls
Arranging these relics like deckchairs to my seasons
I am alone and naked
Playing an old guitar
Singing lines from songs I cannot recall
But for the flutter of wings upon distant rooftops
I sit and write of life
This passing dream
This track of blood and bones
- Terry McArthur 2006
Who Among You
I hear paper thin breathing
The rasp of my grandfather’s ghost singing
A low and painful scrap of song
See me curled upon this bed
My life become a waiting room
All this hurry to arrive all this hurry to depart
Everyone of us will be
Unravelled
Everyone of us will be
Undone
Perhaps this afternoon
Perhaps tomorrow
Perhaps next year
In the fractured shadows of an unseen dawn
By the handsome hand of an unforgiving god
Who can know the moment
Who among you can foretell an old man’s death
Who among you can hear the thin scrapings of my old man’s breath
Harsh against the pillow
- Terry McArthur 2006
Terry McArthur is a Sydney based poet and songwriter. His poems have appeared in The New England Review, Thylazine, Stylus, The Tin Wash Dish ( ABC Books ) , and Holes In The Evening ( Fat Possum Press). He has published Upland, a selection of poems, with Arthur Chaffey and Wayne Von Nida ( University of New England Press) and The Exile ( Fat Possum Press). Walking Skin, his indy book of poems and lyrics will be published this May.
Terry’s songs have been recorded by John Farnham, James Blundell, Faze Action, and Felicity Urquart. In 2002 Terry formed the cube with his long term musical collaborator Phil Rigger as a way of “pushing the boundaries of spoken word”. The cube have released two singles and one album Permanent Scars which has been released in Australia, France and Germany – and is available at www.thecubeonline.com .
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