Paul Hetherington

Paul Hetherington reviews ‘White Knight with Beebox: New and selected poems’ by Peter Steele

November 2008, no. 306 • 01 November 2008

There are times when I read a book that reinvigorates important questions for me – such as how language carries and creates meaning, and what, after all, is the function and force of poetry. Usually, such a book is a creative work and I like to imagine that the first readers of volumes by George Herbert or John Donne responded with such questions – to poetry that consistently registered a pers ... (read more)

'River' by Paul Hetherington | States of Poetry ACT - Series One

States of Poetry ACT - Series One • 22 February 2016

There was never an explanationas to why he walked into the river,took hold of a logand floated away.They found lettersbut the love he expressedin sometimes obsessive detailwas no explanation –except, the coroner declaredthat perhaps it indicated'a lack of a grasp', etc.Someone who saw him pass bysaid that he was waterlogged;another said he sat upright,as if triumphant, and was singing;a third (u ... (read more)

'Gap' by Paul Hetherington | States of Poetry ACT - Series One

States of Poetry ACT - Series One • 22 February 2016

A gap opened every eveningemitting a panting – as soft as darkness,or stray dog at exhaustion's end.Unsettling, like a straggly bird,it dropped dark feathersof prickling desire into the room.It knew the edges of solitudelike the blue glacier's encrusted ice,and morphed into a clouded mirroron which each searching glance stuck fast. Paul Hetherington ... (read more)

'Eyes' by Paul Hetherington | States of Poetry ACT - Series One

States of Poetry ACT - Series One • 22 February 2016

for BL(from 'Paintings')   A hundred eyesexamine me like an insect,red and yellow like fear.What walks about mein dirty boots, holding my ideasridiculous? Whose facevisits restless nights,threatening to blank my dreams –a near-perfect oval and no-colour;obliteration like a smile?The painting becomes a murderof Aztec nobility in the Templeand time droningthrough aeons of absence,away from ... (read more)

'Dwelling' by Paul Hetherington | States of Poetry ACT - Series One

States of Poetry ACT - Series One • 22 February 2016

Every morning, with an authorityof clinging, earthy foundationsa house sat in air.Inside someone was singing an ariaabout how love inflects its failingsand a woman, absorbed in her toiletteconsidered how pained words workthe world awry, even as air fills with song.Outside a man hammered boardsto make a dwelling; crows sat on a wireas if planning insurrection.Drought held paddocks tightlyas a team ... (read more)

'Black Dress' by Paul Hetherington | States of Poetry ACT - Series One

States of Poetry ACT - Series One • 22 February 2016

for TAW(from 'Paintings') This black dressis also a painting –it hangs on a wallwhere light holds it close.It's a doorway to placesno-one quite knows;that bloom and rainwith extravagant vistas. We've sometimes enteredinto the paintingdipping dark hats,watching childrenriding down lanes(their slit-eyed scrutinyprickling our backs),finding a housemade out of art –colourful images; chaotic sign ... (read more)