No Disposals

Tony Beyer

Peter Hooper

trust a man from the West Coast
to write the best rain poems
schooled in the level prosody
of window pane and furrowed roof
so words like yard and paddock
come towards us saturated

wisdom a wiser head instinctively
questions might envisage
walls and fences melting into desuetude
under our habitual dispensation
where everyone knows everyone
or thinks they should

to pass by one’s brother’s name
on the local war memorial
must have stirred havocs in self esteem
only a recompense of tears
centred on impartial nature
could partially assuage

maker of belated tributes
he deserves one too
being read by younger minds
the physical book in the hand
a speaking death had seemed to silence
heard as if alive again

Note: Peter Hooper (1919–1991) West Coast poet, novelist, teacher, bookseller and conservationist. Rejoice Instead: The Collected Poems of Peter Hooper, edited with an introduction by Pat White. ISBN: 978-0-473-57185-6. Softcover, 224 pp, 210 x 148mm. Cold Hub Press. Colin McCahon, who used his poems in a number of art works, described him as a ‘poet of grace and truth’.