Detached

 

DETACHED

By David Jones

I walk to the beach early in the morning and encounter something strange….

 

A fog

 

or sea-mist?

I really don’t know

it’s over sea

so I guess it’s the latter!

 

whatever it is

it has stolen the horizon

taken boats that bob

or bobbed?

 

do they still bob

in the world where they can’t be seen?

have I also been stolen

from others

 

those who no longer see me?

do I, like boats, bob

or reside in some past tense

unseen?

 

lost in a bewilderment

stranded with no point of reference

float (or bob) in a world of white

a predacious white

 

my feet swallowed

as is ahead and behind

left and right become defunct

I have entered an unknown

 

stand alone

cry ‘I Am’

within this expanse of nothingness

I exist

 

Reside in the field of time

singular in a polarity of opposites

surrounded by antitheses of self

sense a need to be whole

 

a chill touches my face

at first pleasant

but it reaches inside

touches bones

 

I suffer it surround me

coils like a snake

cold-blooded

it is fear

 

my white shadow

About the author:

David’s working life was mostly spent in the Middle East and Asia, he was fortunate to have been in touch with different cultures: to be able to look at those cultures from (as far as possible) within that culture, a very important perspective made possible by living there, a perspective he has tried to maintain in his travels.

It is through this ‘emic’ view that he was able to, if not fully understand, to at least have a perspective through the eyes of those he was trying to appreciate.

His photography and poetry is mostly of people and cultures but also of their history, the ancient history, the story of mankind.

The basis for his writing is empathy toward the world around him, a need to speak of history, natural beauty and sadly injustice and repression, aspects of the human condition he met where he worked and lived.

David is releasing a book of photos and poetry concerning the Stolen Generations, in conjunction with this he is having a photographic exhibition in August 2023 at the Ballarat Photo Biennale.