On the Borders

We're driving across tableland
somewhere in the world;
it is almost bare of trees.

Upland near void of features
aways moves me, but not to thought;
it lets me rest from thinking.

I feel no need to interpret it
as if it were art. Too much
of poetry is criticism now.

That hawk, clinging to
the eaves of the wind, beating
its third wing, its tail

isn't mine to sell. And here is
more like the space that needs
to exist around an image.

This cloud-roof country reminds me
of the character of people
who first encountered roses in soap.

Poems The Size of Photographs is the latest collection of brief, humorous and insightful poems from the prize-winning Australian poet, Les Murray. This accessible and beautiful book will appeal to both occasional and dedicated poetry readers.