after Kurt Sepmeier’s reading of Michael Drayton’s ‘Since There’s No Help’ *
The gasp ‘last!’ long-distance-wise
largely because of our situations, po-
tentially we knew it was futile and
all reasonings were diminished, we
became New Mexico and Chicago
respectively; we finally stopped talking.
Since there’s no hope, I will turn
to the recorder, when music recovered
from the page might come alive
like suede as it moves on a back
across a hall of preserved antiquity.
I pray that sheet music survives here,
so that I might survive here too, without
you.
* J Anderson (2013). Favourite Poem Project: Chicago; The Poetry Foundation, Chicago USA.
Gregory Horne is a writer and teacher. His poems have appeared in a number of Australian print and online journals including Meanjin, Southerly, Island, Cordite Poetry Review, Rabbit Journal, Verity La, Foam:e and Best Australian Poems 2012. He was shortlisted for the Axel Clark Memorial Prize in 2014. Gregory lives with his wife and three children in the Blue Mountains NSW.