Writing

( Margaret Preston, Flying Over the Shoalhaven River, 1942)

To make a mark on paper
draw a line
where steel presses
ink flows.

Flying over the Shoalhaven
and looking down
my heart expands -

A silver river
in a land
of gold.

A Word

No word in memory
only scenes
the widening of an aperture
the sudden click of a shutter shutting

I see you there
alone
at the end of an airless corridor
distant, silent
as fragile as a Daguerreotype print

I wait a word
none comes
between us

© Ann Nugent
12 November 2002

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Hill Arches

You fold me in your arms
and draw me into your dream.
Caught in moonlight
your body shines above me.
The gleaming ball falls
smooth and bright –
Thigh bones bend
Hills arch.

© Ann Nugent

(the Henry Moore sculpture Hill Arches, National Gallery of Australia)
first published: Blast, Autumn 1989, p21.

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Bedroom in Venice

All look to a future in which Matter and Spirit
will be in equivalence. Piet Mondrian

Womb Room
vacant
silent

Shows still
the red of penetration

Folds in
the secret life of grave imaginings
ceiling-traced

In membrane-soft clouds
gold blue
fall memories of
our dreams’ embrace

Beyond the wall
fierce sunlight lighting lapis skies
scorns such indolence

Campanile bells
shake

and with present sound
pierce
this absent space.

© Ann Nugent
First published in Blast, 13-14 Spring 1990.

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Kiss

We kiss with fleshless lips
and taste pure air.

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Night Skies

Gazing at night skies
The ancients traced figures of heroes
I look at your body
And see a galaxy of stars

© Ann Nugent

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