Stuart Barnes

'Horus and Set' by Stuart Barnes | States of Poetry Queensland - Series One

States of Poetry Queensland - Series One • 22 February 2016

From his ebony eyriethe moon is salubrious,round as the white lotus' root.The desert's his adversary. The moon is salubriouswith his godly left eye.The desert's his adversary,spiteful, like a hippopotamus. With his godly left eyethe moon is neither ossuary,nor spiteful, like a hippopotamus,a shape-shifting crocodile. The moon is not an ossuary.The desert is a troglodyte,a shape-shifting crocodi ... (read more)

'Fingal Valley' by Stuart Barnes | States of Poetry Queensland - Series One

States of Poetry Queensland - Series One • 22 February 2016

Nan's budgerigar,cat fed    squeezing like the morningfog between oxidized barbedwire and gorsewith an older cousinwith a slug gun booting sheep skullsstripped by gusts, our fathers'1950s snares    swooped by plovers,daring: 'yellow spurs! forearmsup!'   shooting star-lings for laughs another exhausted afternoon:a hotted-up Torana: another burnoutto Warran ... (read more)

'Deep Sea Love' by Stuart Barnes | States of Poetry Queensland - Series One

States of Poetry Queensland - Series One • 22 February 2016

... it shimmers, it does not stop, and I think it wants me.—Sylvia Plath, 'A Birthday Present' Here's some activity you may have missed:pompadour-lure hung three days after Idisentangle.                       'It misses me.'The fourth: A lot has happened onFacebook since you last logged ... (read more)

'Moon—' by Stuart Barnes | States of Poetry Queensland - Series One

States of Poetry Queensland - Series One • 22 February 2016

                 Woman the real sea snoring half a mile awaythe scrubbed brick walls of the double lounge and itssamples of african drums flood the speakers Is that your shadow, weightless,a smudge of grey dustin the black trickery of the she-oak? the lyrebird   in the moon,with her cloudy skirt, shimmies ... (read more)

'Black Cockatoos' by Stuart Barnes | States of Poetry Queensland - Series One

States of Poetry Queensland - Series One • 22 February 2016

after David Brooks Red-tailed Bedouinsof Poetry, blackcockatoos embroiderthe sun into us,seam-rip it asunder.*On the Fitzroy'sbank at midday,cracking seeds of eucalyptsthat outrank Council, a hundredBanks' black cockatoos,a paroxysm of commas.*With their subtlercomplex-ions, the females infinitelymore beautifulthan the ludic-rously coloured gatherers.*The gospel according to the locals:'Four blac ... (read more)