TO FORGET SELF AND ALL
J: O forget selt and all, torget foremost This whimpering second unlicked self my country, To go like nobody’s tool an ungulied ghost By adorned midnight and the pitch of noon Commanding at large everywhere his entry, Unimaginable waterchinks, granular dark of a stone? Why that'd be freedom heyday, hey For freedom that'd be the day And as good a dream as any to be damned for. Then to patch it up with self and_all and all This tousled sunny-mouthed sandy-legged coast, These painted and these rusted stegets, This heart so supple and small, Blinding mountain, deafening river And smooth anxious sheets, And go like a sober lover like nobody's ghost? Why that'd be freedom heyday, hey Freedom! That'd be the day And as good a dream as any to be damned bac To sink both self and all why sink the whole Phenomenal enterprise, colours shapes and sizes Low like Lucifer’s bolt trom the cockshied roost Of groundless paradise: peeled gold gull Whom the cracked verb of his thoughts ‘ Blew down blew up mid-air, where the s€a’s gorge rises, The burning brain's nine feathering fathom doused And prints with bubbles one grand row of noughts? Why that’d be treedom heyday, hey For freedom, that'd be the day And as good a dream as any to be Saudade by. --Allen Curnow
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19550407.2.29
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 819, 7 April 1955, Page 14
Word count
Tapeke kupu
226TO FORGET SELF AND ALL New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 819, 7 April 1955, Page 14
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Material in this publication is protected by copyright.
Are Media Limited has granted permission to the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa to develop and maintain this content online. You can search, browse, print and download for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Are Media Limited for any other use.
Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.
Log in