AUSTRALIAN ARTISTS & WRITERS FOR PEACE
THE WORDS OF THE PROPHETS by Chris Wallace-Crabbe

[Above] Photo of Chris Wallace-Crabbe by photographer unknown, year unknown.

Chris Wallace-Crabbe


THE WORDS OF THE PROPHETS

The city is a lovely ghost
the moon is a blonde queen
the terrors of earth are never quiet
they move in corners of the bllod
like ships with dark sails
making their way to wooden ports
named after cruel stars
or generals perhaps

The city is a vast savannah
like ants we crawl across
its lightning-coloured esplanades
hoping to hear the purple trumpets
we shall never come to know
pushing through a million curtains
of heavyweight brocade
in search of doves

The city sees old mountains standing
up to their ankles in green water
submarines drowning under ice
small eyes filling up with blood
without giving a tinker's damn

Caught in its grip those thin grey cells
will star with maybloom soon enough
and secret choirs begin



About the Poet Chris Wallace-Crabbe

Christopher Keith Wallace-Crabbe, poet and essayist, is now an Emeritus Professor in The Australian Centre, University of Melbourne. Born to a journalist and a pianist, he grew up with a family tradition of military-bohemian Scots. On leaving school he worked at such jobs as cadet metallurgist and electrical trade journalist before finding his metier as poet and as a university teacher. He has lived in Britain, the United States and Italy, as well as in his natal Melbourne, has taught at Harvard and read his poems all round the world. Wallace-Crabbe has published a dozen books of poetry, plus prose works, art criticism and varied anthologies. For diversion he walks, draws and plays tennis.
   [Above] Photo of Chris Wallace-Crabbe by photographer unknown, year unknown.