Stooping to Drink

photo: t knouff

In class tonight, I have to present a poem of my own and one from the reader. I chose a poem by David Malouf called Stooping to Drink. I love it so much I thought I'd share it with you. I particularly love the last 7 lines. It makes me want to drive straight out of Sydney and find a dam...

Stooping to Drink

Smelling the sweet grass

of distant hills, too steep

to climb, too far to see

in this handful of water

scooped from the river dam.

Touching the sky where like

a single wing my hand

dips through clouds. Tasting

the shadow of basket-willows,

the colour of ferns.

A perch, spoon-coloured, climbs

where the moon sank, trailing

bubbles of white,

and school kids on picnics

swing from a rope - head

over sunlit heels like angels 

they plunge into the sun

at midday, into silence

of pinewoods hanging over

a sunken hill-farm.

Taking all this in

at the lips, holding it

in the cup of the hand.

And further down the hiss

of volcanoes, rockfall

and hot metals cooling

in blueblack depths a hundred

centuries back.

Taking all this in

as the water takes it: sky

sunlight, sweet grass-flavours

and the long-held breath

of children - a landscape

mirrored, held a moment,

and let go again.