After Alice Meynell
What power has the Universe to break
The puff of stardust in my aching bones?
The memory of that infinite wake
Still shudders in each atom’s breath I groan.
The darkness closes on me, echoing
Its grim oblivion, entropy’s shroud;
The bleak gulf bursts to waveform’s meadow, sings
A hymn of life triumphant in the loud
Everything—God’s creation ramifies
Like lightning’s spark the Logos Cosmos force,
His body is divergent, justified
By His infinite reason’s mighty course.
When I tread on the Lyre and the Bear,
The Pleiades man’s destiny proclaim:
That death has died, they may yet be aware,
I will be there to bless them with a name.
Brendon IJ McLeod is studying for a PhD in English and Writing at The University of Sydney, for which he was recently awarded the Arthur Macquarie Travelling Scholarship. He was shortlisted for the 2023 Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize and was awarded a fellowship from The Writers’ Space to Varuna the National Writers’ House. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Rabbit Poetry, Overland, Australian Poetry Journal’s digital publication, and other venues. He is also a jazz musician. He lives and works in Wiradyuri country.