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AUSTRALIAN ARTISTS & WRITERS FOR PEACE
"Fandango for the sorrowful fathers" by John Stokes

[Above] Photo of John Stokes by Heidi Smith, 1999.

John Stokes

"Fandango for the sorrowful fathers"

Over Kosovo & rutting
5 glittered armies, humming

5 magic countries
wait to be swallowed

5 oblivious winds
roar for direction

In a vein of lights
the darkness waits

For the great violation
the stones are to be punished

The winds are to be punished
those bodies who dared

To look like ourselves
must prepare to receive

Our tears, our glory
The young Bomb Aimer extends his finger

A complicit star
stains like a scream

"You actually feel it when it leaves"

About the Poet John Stokes

The work of poet John Stokes has been widely anthologised in Australia and North America; including in journals such as Idiom 23, Muse, Redoubt, Scarp, Studio, Ulitarra, & Voices. He reads on radio and at various festivals. He won the Woorilla Poetry Prize in 1996 and has been runner-up in various regional prizes. John says that his present passion is Australian landscape as backdrop, and as an emotion for human violence or awe. He is trying to be brave and report back from the country beyond love. He says his favourite poetic influencers are RD Fitzgerald, Francis Webb, Seamus Heaney and Bruce Dawe; and favourite prose writer, David Malouf.
   [Above] Photo of John Stokes by Heidi Smith, 1999.

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