Robe, South Australia, is a remote town off the main Melbourne-Adelaide road. Situated on the South Australian coast it can be a haunting place, especially at night in the middle of winter.
The Cemetery By the Coast (Robe South Australia 1995)by Ian IrvineThere is a cemetery
a place of dead things
of bones
of things extinct
things that lived
but now have given up the ghost
There is a cemetery
a place of memories
of bones
of regrets
of words unspoken
buried in the worm-black soil.
I come to the graveyard
armed with a silver spade
I come like pilgrim or a penitent
weary of heart
broken ...
I come
to the cemetery by the coast.
* This poem was first published, along with work by fellow Australian poets John Kinsella and John Tranter, in the US online journal 'Conspire' (one of the world's first online literary ezines) in 1998 . It also featured in the collection of poetry 'Facing the Demon of Noontide' 2001.Reserved
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This is a book of free verse poetry that addresses the seven main tests in life and offers some sensible solutions to passing those tests with minimal discomfort.
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