[Editor: This poem by Rex Ingamells was published in the Jindyworobak Anthology, 1938.]
Rex Ingamells
Outback
All the unhallowed beauty I have found;
All free-discordant shrills
and form-defying wonders above ground,
like writhen trees with draggled foliage
struggling along the courses of wayback creeks;
scarlet-and-green
sky-streaking parrot-fires with parrot-shrieks
echo-shattering the shoulders of the hills;
and desert-sunset-rage:
Rage for my mind, be clamant, do not cease;
you are my holiest habitat of peace.
Source:
Rex Ingamells (editor), Jindyworobak Anthology, 1938, Adelaide: F. W. Preece, [1938], p. 28
Editor’s notes:
clamant = compelling, pressing, urgent; crying out for attention, urgently demanding attention; clamorous, noisy
writhen = (past participle of “writhe”) twisted, contorted, distorted (also spelt as “wrythen”); may also refer to spirally twisted decorations (usually being antique glass or silver items, or a section thereof)
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