Andrew Shillam recently had poems published in online journals including "Burrow" Old Water Rat Publishing, Paris/Atlantic 2018 and Studio La Primitive. His artistic background is mainly in the visual arts. He studied at Newcastle University in Australia in the 1990's and has exhibited regularly for over twenty years. He lives in Northern NSW Australia with his wife who is also a visual artist.► Andrew's microchap & poems are available below. Download the single-page PDF by clicking the title.
| Origami Microchap with Selected Poems | ||
| A Midnight Tarot |
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Click title to download micro
Cover design by author |
The Crossroads The screaming man was much closer last night, so close that I could hear each word he said. It always seems to happen in the dead of night when you least expect it. That's right. What made him take to the drink so badly? Is it drink? He's someone we never see… Salt in the river, carried from the sea a hundred miles away, has come to me, I hear the wind, the palms that scrape the tin. At this crossroads in time figures emerge from the past and all of life seems to surge towards this still point you cannot begin to understand, almost as if you cease to be. Just the wind and the leaves scraping softly…
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The Spanish Garden Poets, shuffling stillness into words, unfold again the lacquered night, and, where a seated woman with dark braided hair plays chess, the chamber rings with chirping birds… Echoing through some recess beyond time, the unfolding night reveals each facet cut with the precision of a sonnet. A fountain plays in a courtyard where lime trees and oranges grow in an arrangement until, cutting the cards, the night is spent. Waking from enchanted sleep with dead sand in our pockets, metal poles ringing down the street, unloaded on the cold dawn, and a smell of baking bread over the town. • Andrew Shillam © 2023 |
