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Thylazine: Australian Journal of Arts, Ethics & Literature                                                                                                                                    #2/thyla2k-lc TEN AUSTRALIAN POETS SERIES 2 The Poetry of Louise Crisp Selected by Coral Hull [Above] Photo of Louise Crisp by Tom Cameron, 1997. I fascination & egg I avoidance place I sejant I crossing/ ford I I search I en/trance S.B. River I fascination & egg                     'smaller at the top                     and wider at the bottom                     they're egg shaped' we tip the kids out of the backpacks into the shade of the river there's a small hard body scooped in sand at my feet - a pale oval stone                       I talk to egg:                      anyone could have found you                      accidental as a lover                      oval as my inner mouth the Toyota tracks up a gully on to the counter benched above the river going in the direction of Mt Bulla Bulla & Suggan Buggan River                       follow a line, a track, a deviation any alternative in steep country to find your egg avoidance place I make a circle to cross the river at the beginning of Sandy Creek track on the bare patch of ground above the junction with the Snowy I leave a small piece of yellow quartz next to the protector stone I go around carefully up Sandy Creek & over the ridge along from Mt Trooper and down Joe Davis Creek it takes four hours to go around this one stone which is a warrior stone a fighting stone & when I come back down- stream to face it the triple spears             of stillness             silence             & distance rush to grab me I recross the river re-enter the circle & wait forever sejant I come into her country the dingo observes me seeking a trail across the river padding back and forth then sitting to wait on a sandbar the wind does not disturb her or my smell having watched this long on the rack a call may do it or a cry or someone she slept near a long time ago I wait for the scent of memory then go /                  lie down by her crossing / ford I downstream from Gattamurh ('the wheels of the Toyota go round & round') my baby's head against the sky I laugh like a blue child & clouds scuff over the white-pine ridges when the moon rises into your face I see how you both sleep in the bright pale light that bodies make in a deep pool near camp the bunyip who lives there swallows our shadows Search once you had given me the directions I could not look elsewhere the further I went downriver - I realised I'd come a long way but according to the map it was nowhere I felt scared without the lineaments of mapping: latitude & longitude virtually unreal I looked over the edge of all those steep hills & cliffs holding so much power but what remains to be done with them? how could there possibly be salvation? I know the beauty in the small hollows of ground when I turn over the stones you have shown me the rainbow colours lying in circles & swirls as netting does over water but if I am fish can I ever be rainbow? en/trance S.B. River I carry two stones down river from Willis like my daughters in each hand to take a snake home coiled in my solar plexus have I acted unwisely? in this second best to the ancient search for intimacy? looking, looking - this stone or that? no reply yet they go with me as if in accord, our willingness matched but in my heart the hole is still there like a shadowy love moving through my vision: I know you but no-one is there surely there could have been no harm in asking: where is the entry place? but whom should I have asked? you reassure me that the colours of your rainbow-sleek skin are always there & in the whirlpool below camp I can cast this song down Published in Ruby Camp (Spinifex Press, 1997). About the Poet Louise Crisp Louise Crisp was born in Omeo, Victoria in 1957. She majored in Lingistics, Anthropology and Prehistory at the Australian National University in Canberra. She has worked in various occupations around New Zealand and Australia including firetower person on Mt Nugong in East Gippsland, and deckhand in the Northern Territory and Western Australia. Her first collection of poetry, the luminous ocean, was published in a joint volume with Valery Wilde entitled In The Half-Light (Friendly Street Poets, 1988); pearl and sea fed (Hazard Press, 1994) was shortlisted in the 1995 NSW Premiers Awards. Her latest book of poetry is Ruby Camp published by Spinifex Press in 1997. Louise lives in East Gippsland with her partner and two daughters.    [Above] Photo of Louise Crisp by Tom Cameron, 1997. I Next I Back I Exit I Thylazine No.2 (September, 2000)