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Thylazine: The Australian Journal of Arts, Ethics & Literature                                                                                                                                    #4/thyla4k-cg AUSTRALIAN POETS SERIES 4 The Poetry of Claire Gaskin Selected by Coral Hull [Above] Photo of Claire Gaskin by Claire Gaskin, 2000. I I sit on a rock I Pleasantly Confused I the forest at night alive with relationship I Sensitive Chaos I I sit on a rock. I sit on a rock The water of your words Rushing in my ears. A cloud over the sun I'm in the shadow of an eagle with the instincts of a rabbit. Moths like memories Come loose From under a rib Fly off. The more I yield The more I solidify Standing upright Learning to walk. Pleasantly Confused. Steady in your colour. Her eyes fading into forgiveness. The stone stairs have turned into river. She seems happier in hospital than she was at home with us. She waved a memory in our face like a flag. A curtain falls, snow falls She falls and wishes she was dead. You encourage me to bleed into listening. You seem to be blurring, burning. You sit close on an island of couch. Every word is a drop in the deafening waterfall. Her atmosphere is pastel On the stage with chocolates and flowers. ... the forest at night alive with relationship the forest at night alive with relationship my hands lie beside me like flowers holding eternity in their expansiveness. the traffic a ripping seam the tree speaks to me of shade the wells falling silence kisses me with its open mouth the vehicle of sleep complete in its lake of destination you are ground to me the smell of earth after rain I said lets go for a walk in the convent of my fear its there on the tip of a leaf tongue the moment in its fullness brimming with light they play in the kitchen sisters / daughters dance with the umbilical cord while I cook the light of youth on his face and tips of his shoes A flock of birds in shifting formation. I look up my hands on the wheel. Above the fumes regardless of traffic. Unpeg the birds' wings from the clothes line. Scenes from my life splatter on the wall like someone has left the blender on with the lid off. A wound to the back of the heart an axe in the wood. blood on the hand around the face like petals of a poppy around the disc SENSITIVE CHAOS. THEODOR SCHWENK ( the words italicized are text from Sensitive Chaos.) The incurved forms of a glacial pot-hole are caused by the grinding movement of stones driven around by water. We talked all day two women About the abuse we had sustained. An object moved backwards and forwards in water creates a field of vortices. He said he thought I was going to introduce her as my sister because there was something similar about us. Vertically spiralling columns of air. Gliding birds are carried by them to great heights. There are things I don't remember. I don't go there. The elements of the earth are arranged in a certain order, it is the same order as that in which the spirit descends into matter and can clothe itself in a body. When we came out of the cafe it was raining. 2. As well as currents flowing downstream there are also revolving currents in the bed of the stream. She said we had changed I said maybe not. The surface of contact between two currents curls over to form a vortex. Now I wait for her to give to give her refuge. The boats of the natives perch on the waves in the wake of a steamer and are carried along by them. She comes home. I don't sleep. Longer waves overtake shorter ones and hasten on ahead. I start to feel comfortable in her presence. The same waves always remain behind the same stones and the water     perpetually flows through their constant form. About the Poet Claire Gaskin Claire Gaskin was born in Australia in 1966. She now lives in country Victoria where she facilitates creative writing workshops and courses and runs public literary readings. She has been publishing her work in literary journals for eighteen years and reads her work at poetry performance venues in Melbourne, Victoria. Her chapbook A snail in the ear of the Buddha, was published by Soup Publications in 1998. She has two daughters, two dogs and two cats. She practises, studies and teaches yoga and hopes that something of a meditative quality comes through in her writing. She is interested in authenticity of image and passion in poetry.    [Above] Photo of Claire Gaskin by Claire Gaskin, 2000. I Next I Back I Exit I Thylazine No.4 (September, 2001)