New Poetry by David Ades

Becoming Flame

When heart is taken from you, torn,

when a child is taken, land, home, innocence, naiveté,
the way everything is perceived,

when what was full has been emptied

and what remains is the dark hole of emptiness
into which you fall and fall,

the person you were dies, becomes another,

carrying the unseen weight of loss, of grief,
like a clinging child that won’t let go,

so that what was taken can never be returned.

What survives depends on will, on character,
on the ability to transform,

to become phoenix rising from ashes,

to war constantly against hollowness —
and in becoming other, becoming more,

more than shadow, more than shell,

more than something broken, something spent,
and of every weight carried, every loss,

becoming shrine, tribute, spirit.


- David Ades 2018

David Ades has lived in Sydney since 2016. He is curating a new monthly poetry reading series commencing in February at Castle Hill Library featuring one poet reading and discussing his or her work and focusing on a theme of the poet’s choice.