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Live Encounters Poetry & Writing Special Australian Edition August 2023
The long miles, poem by Tricia Dearborn.
The long miles
maybe you know them, maybe you’ve walked them
those long bleak miles
where there is neither pleasure
nor the prospect of pleasure
nor any memory of what pleasure or prospects
were or are
but one day you may find yourself washing up
with your phone in your back pocket
and the Mozart ‘Recordare’ in your ears
thrilling to its power, moved to tears
actually singing along, knowing at last
that no matter how long your heart
is cleaved from the life of the world
beauty will wait for you
© Tricia Dearborn
Tricia Dearborn is an award-winning poet, writer and editor. She has published four books of poetry: Autobiochemistry (University of Western Australia Publishing, 2019), She Reconsiders Life on the Run (International Poetry Studies Institute Chapbooks, 2019), The Ringing World (Puncher & Wattmann, 2012) and Frankenstein’s Bathtub (Interactive Press, 2001). Her work is widely represented in literary journals, and in anthologies including Fishing for Lightning: The spark of poetry, The Anthology of Australian Prose Poetry, and Contemporary Australian Poetry. She has been a guest poetry editor for literary journals including Rabbit 31: The Science Issue in 2020, and a judge for the University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor’s International Poetry Prize. She also writes fiction, and was the winner of the international 2021 Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize. Tricia is currently completing a new poetry collection with the support of a grant from Create NSW. She lives in Sydney, Australia with her wife, who is also a writer.