Lodestar Quarterly

Lodestar Quarterly
Figure reaching for a star Issue 17 • Spring 2006 • Poetry

Defenses on Breaking Up with Diaghilev

Terry Jaensch

1.

No man parried as such entered the Ark!
Nor loved his God, whispering expletives
From behind. Why that quarried pit, when

I've a nymph's scarf, to ennoble my desire
My mind? No man sets out to shock Paris,
Artistically he reaches an impasse, suffice it
To say, a line: Marriage is not provocative!

2.

Pomade on the pillows (the Impresario's true
Pitch more greying cloud than clap of dark
Thunder) more or less marked an end to fine

Cotton and brocade: no launders' salt can
Lift. Lovemaking's Rorschach (if you permit)
Tests more in laughter in catching of breath
Than analysis, the propriety of one's maids.

Terry Jaensch is a an Australian poet based in Melbourne. His first book of poetry, Buoy, was highly commended in the Anne Elder Award by the Fellowship of Australian Writers. He has worked as a writer-in-community, artist-in-residence and artistic director of the 2005 Melbourne Emerging Writers' Festival. In May 2004 he was the recipient of an Asialink residency in Singapore where he collaborated, with Singaporean poet Cyril Wong, on a volume of poetry that referenced the lives of Castrati opera singers.

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