{"id":3723,"date":"2011-12-23T11:19:30","date_gmt":"2011-12-23T11:19:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meeseeks:5080\/blog\/?p=3723"},"modified":"2022-01-18T16:46:40","modified_gmt":"2022-01-18T16:46:40","slug":"poem-the-lost-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/2011\/12\/poem-the-lost-man\/","title":{"rendered":"Poem: The Lost Man"},"content":{"rendered":"

Judith Wright’s poem, The Lost Man<\/em>, was written about James Guthrie Westray<\/a>, a survivor of the crash of the Stinson<\/a> in the McPherson ranges of SE Queensland in 1937, who died after falling over a waterfall when hacking through the jungle to seek help.   The “gold bird dancing” refers to the aircraft, although the poem may also be read as a description of our journey through life.  The religious allusions, including the pun in the last line, are immensely powerful. This poem has been set to music by Ross Edwards.<\/p>\n

The Lost Man<\/em>
\nTo reach the pool you must go through the rain-forest \u2013
\nthrough the bewildering midsummer of darkness
\nlit with ancient fern,
\nlaced with poison and thorn.
\nYou must go by the way he went \u2013 the way of the bleeding
\nhands and feet, the blood on the stones like flowers,
\nunder the hooded flowers
\nthat fall on the stones like blood.
\nTo reach the pool you must go by the black valley
\namong the crowded columns made of silence,
\nunder the hanging clouds
\nof leaves and voiceless birds.
\nTo go by the way he went to the voice of the water,
\nwhere the priest stinging-tree waits with his whips and fevers
\nunder the hooded flowers
\nthat fall from the trees like blood,
\nyou must forget the song of the gold bird dancing
\nover tossed light; you must remember nothing
\nexcept the drag of darkness
\nthat draws your weakness under.
\nTo go by the way he went, you must find beneath you
\nthat last and faceless pool, and fall.  And falling
\nfind between breath and death
\nthe sun by which you live.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 
\nPhoto:   A pool on the Stinson Walk, Lamington Ranges National Park, Queensland.  Credit:  Life Cycle<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Judith Wright’s poem, The Lost Man, was written about James Guthrie Westray, a survivor of the crash of the Stinson in the McPherson ranges of SE Queensland in 1937, who died after falling over a waterfall when hacking through the jungle to seek help.   The “gold bird dancing” refers to the aircraft, although the poem […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","p1","y2011","m12","d23","h11"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3723"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10562,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3723\/revisions\/10562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}