The Land of the Fair Go (A Lament)
That is the wound that does not close — to love a place that is choosing, deliberately, with its eyes open, to be less than it was, less than it could be ...
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May 11, 2026
Oligarchs and Imbeciles
After “Avenues and Alleyways” – Tony Christie (1973)Sleep like a baby,My little lady,Dream till the sunriseCreeps into your eyes,Dream till the sunrise turns on the day.Oligarchs and imbeciles – While…
May 3, 2026
The Populist
She storms through rallies like a queen of the lost,and something in the crowd completes the circuit – not stupidity, not theatre, but a costlong owed, long felt, finally given…
April 27, 2026
The Last Light and the First: A Poem for Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday
I. The Upper RoomThey gathered where the lamplight held the night at bay,and bread was broken gently into willing hands.A teacher poured out wine as dark as fading day,and love…
April 3, 2026
Are You Sleeping?
A Round on the Ownership of the World(after Frère Jacques)"How can a god give what a god does not have?– and what has god ever possessed, that was not first…
April 1, 2026
Sparks in the Abyss – Humanity, Honour, and Hope in the Great War
Accounts from the First World War demonstrate that even in the hells of the trenches humanity was not completely lost.
March 23, 2026
From Arnhem Land’s River to the Sea
Between the Glyde’s brown pull and the Arafura’s breath,where saltpan cracks like sentences half-said,I walk the country that was old before our clocks,and learn to read a language without thread.The…
March 21, 2026
The Christchurch Mosque Attacks
Having faced on the worst terrorist events in recent times, Aotearoa has become an example for the world of inclusion after horror.
March 17, 2026
The Mad Man’s Hymn
Verse 1 On Sunday morning voices rise, and churches fill with song; they crown the Saviour as their King and praise Him loud and long. But when the final amen…
March 6, 2026
Bush Telegraph
Once a Jolly Swagman, wandering tracks ‘tween treesHitching rides by saddle-side or riding in a drayShared his stories, brought his tales and perhaps his billy tooBut most import was given…
March 5, 2026
Engine of Extraction
Capitalism doesn’t pretend to care. It doesn’t bother with illusions. It presents you with a fact: you exist to be used. Your value is measured by how efficiently you can…
March 4, 2026
The Lies We Live
You keep telling people the country is under siege – that immigrants are flooding in, that Muslims are plotting, that anyone who looks different is some kind of threat. Don’t you…
March 3, 2026
The Spinning Prize Wheel of Fate
Step closer and watch the great Wheel turn, a burnished disc like Achilles’ Shield, etched with destinies you never chose. Hear it hum with the weight of unseen hands, those…
March 1, 2026
Songlines of the Moonlit Dreaming
Fly with me through the dreaming, where the night sky opens like a doorway and the old spirits speak in soft winds, guiding our steps across the warm red earth.Let…
February 27, 2026
The One Nation Comic Opera
The diva belts her entrance With forty notes of vengeance .
February 26, 2026
A Ballad of Humankind (in Fifty Fairytale Lines)
Mirror, mirror on the wall – Are humans really fairest of all? You shall go to the ball, they say – But midnight’s hopes don’t always stay. “All the better…
February 19, 2026