Accessibility Tools

  • Content scaling 100%
  • Font size 100%
  • Line height 100%
  • Letter spacing 100%

States of Poetry 2016 - Western Australia | ‘The Children of Aleppo’ by Graham Kershaw

by
States of Poetry Western Australia - Series One

States of Poetry 2016 - Western Australia | ‘The Children of Aleppo’ by Graham Kershaw

by
States of Poetry Western Australia - Series One

This morning I read of the nightwell,
filling mysteriously in our sleep,
disappearing by day, and it brought
to mind the gifts of Christmas, of starlight,
the open dark eyes of the children of Aleppo
on television the night before.

I dreamt of a family escaping through pines,
over the crest of a forest, young and old
struggling down to the shore of a great cold lake,
their only hope of escape; no boat was there,
but the strong might try to carry the old,
at least, if they cared enough

and it made me want to simply run away,
to escape the brain-ache of not doing
what we are best made to do, even knowing
our good fortune, knowing no gratitude
or peace of mind, no resting place for
a harried and haunted, half-buried mind

and then I read of the nightwell,
how it was said to fill mysteriously while we sleep,
then disappear by day, and it brought to mind
the gifts of Christmas, of starlight,
the children of Aleppo,
a family escaping ...

 

Graham Kershaw

Leave a comment

If you are an ABR subscriber, you will need to sign in to post a comment.

If you have forgotten your sign in details, or if you receive an error message when trying to submit your comment, please email your comment (and the name of the article to which it relates) to ABR Comments. We will review your comment and, subject to approval, we will post it under your name.

Please note that all comments must be approved by ABR and comply with our Terms & Conditions.