Alcoholism Support Group
Alcoholism is the continued consumption of alcoholic beverages, even when it is negatively affecting your health, work, relationships and life. If you think alcohol is causing you to lose control, it's time to seek help. Our group is a safe place to vent, check in, get back up if you fall, and reach sobriety.
I first read this poem about 16 years ago and found it again today I know there is some who will not relate to the poem or may not even understand it but for me there is so much identification to the times of my practising addiction to alcohol. Some of us dont end up a derelict sleeping in parks or on side-walks but do become derelict in how own homes.
Worth a read .
God Bless
Lionel
Metho Drinker
BY
Judith Wright
Under the death of winter's leaves he lies
who cried to Nothing and the terrible night
to be his home and bread. "O take from me
the weight and waterfall ceaseless Time
that batters down my weakness; the knives of light
whose thrust I cannot turn; the cruelty
of human eyes that dare not touch nor pity."
Under the worn leaves of the winter city
safe in the house of Nothing now he lies.
His white and burning girl, his woman of fire,
creeps to his heart and sets a candle there
to melt away the flesh that hides from bone,
to eat the nerve that tethers him in time.
He will lie warm until the bone is bare
and on a dead dark moon he wakes alone.
It was for Death he took her; death is but this;
and yet he is uneasy under her kiss
and winces from that acid of her desire.
The lyric "Metho Drinker" is a poem by Judith Wright which concerns death as a result of time and the problems associated with addiction. Judith Wright was born in 1915 and died in 2000 at the age of 85. She was a prolific Australian poet, critic and short story writer writing over 50 books. The poem uses its lyrical form to offer a descriptive insight into the bleak themes which highlights the depressing mood and atmosphere of the poem.
Through the seventh line it is clear that Wright is trying to convey a message of a fault in society.
"the cruelty of human eyes that dare not touch nor pity"
Daylight reveals the drinker to society and while people can see him they are taking a blind eye to the problem. If they didn't see him there is no problem. This could be seen as a reflection of the poet's views on society. There are many homeless addicts in society however they are often ignored therefore creating a false sense that there is no problem.
Worth a read .
God Bless
Lionel
Metho Drinker
BY
Judith Wright
Under the death of winter's leaves he lies
who cried to Nothing and the terrible night
to be his home and bread. "O take from me
the weight and waterfall ceaseless Time
that batters down my weakness; the knives of light
whose thrust I cannot turn; the cruelty
of human eyes that dare not touch nor pity."
Under the worn leaves of the winter city
safe in the house of Nothing now he lies.
His white and burning girl, his woman of fire,
creeps to his heart and sets a candle there
to melt away the flesh that hides from bone,
to eat the nerve that tethers him in time.
He will lie warm until the bone is bare
and on a dead dark moon he wakes alone.
It was for Death he took her; death is but this;
and yet he is uneasy under her kiss
and winces from that acid of her desire.
The lyric "Metho Drinker" is a poem by Judith Wright which concerns death as a result of time and the problems associated with addiction. Judith Wright was born in 1915 and died in 2000 at the age of 85. She was a prolific Australian poet, critic and short story writer writing over 50 books. The poem uses its lyrical form to offer a descriptive insight into the bleak themes which highlights the depressing mood and atmosphere of the poem.
Through the seventh line it is clear that Wright is trying to convey a message of a fault in society.
"the cruelty of human eyes that dare not touch nor pity"
Daylight reveals the drinker to society and while people can see him they are taking a blind eye to the problem. If they didn't see him there is no problem. This could be seen as a reflection of the poet's views on society. There are many homeless addicts in society however they are often ignored therefore creating a false sense that there is no problem.
Judith Wright. was certainly a passionate women.She was born at Armidale.And another of her poems "Bora Ring' reflects some of that passion.
This is from a passage I read on the poem.
The first stanza is about how the Aboriginal culture has been lost because of the invasion by the Europeans.
lost in an alien tale implying that the Europeans were the aliens
The second stanza tells us about whats been left behind after the Aborigines were gone
The third stanza explains that theres evidence of people being there, but Wright emphasises that they are gone, everything is gone. It allows us to visualise people being there before, but that now everything is gone.
The final stanza is very powerful because Wright brings the reader into the poem. She does this by using a certain metaphor, which is the fear as old as Cain and is a biblical reference to Cain. She compares the Europeans to Cain, saying that they have killed their brothers like Cain killed his own brother, Abel.
For one reason or another I have always loved poetry . And what lays beyond the written word.
God Bless...
Lionel
"Bora Ring'
The song is gone; the dance
is secret with the dancers in the earth,
the ritual useless, and the tribal story
lost in an alien tale.
Only the grass stands up
to mark the dancing-ring; the apple-gums
posture and mime a past corroboree,
murmur a broken chant.
The hunter is gone; the spear
is splintered underground; the painted bodies
a dream the world breathed sleeping and forgot.
The nomad feet are still.
Only the rider's heart
halts at a sightless shadow, an unsaid word
that fastens in the blood of the ancient curse,
the fear as old as Cain.