Circa 1927: Realising Belief

Kate Fagan

This world of geometry and truth

outruns my hand

in sprawling colour.

Awake in constancy

and a vaulted sky

where sun gives shape to limbs

I saw you

standing with the jacarandas,

siren of a new present

as though feeling

could not be pacified by numbers

and shone replete in things.

We are here — only here.

Hill, bucket, river that fills

and empties in a pool at my feet.

Kate Fagan (NSW) is a writer, editor and musician living in Sydney. Her poetry, interviews and critical essays appear in a range of national and international journals, anthologies and books. Kate is also an established musician and songwriter who has performed and recorded all over Australia and in the UK.

Circa 1927: Realising Belief was written by Kate Fagan in response to Grace Cossington Smith's Trees in the Newcastle Region Art Gallery collection.