DAVID BEACH
Poet’s Justice
I recognised the voice calling for help
from the quicksand as belonging to a
critic who had scanted my book. No one
else was near and, realising his fate might
depend on my actions, I took time to
carefully consider the situation
before walking swiftly to his aid. ‘So
you didn’t like my book?’ I asked, talking
to him to calm him. ‘Your head looks as if
it’s on a plate,’ I added. Branches lay
everywhere and he fell silent while I
was in the midst of selecting one. I
got the branch to his hands just as these were
vanishing but he wrenched it from my grasp.
from the quicksand as belonging to a
critic who had scanted my book. No one
else was near and, realising his fate might
depend on my actions, I took time to
carefully consider the situation
before walking swiftly to his aid. ‘So
you didn’t like my book?’ I asked, talking
to him to calm him. ‘Your head looks as if
it’s on a plate,’ I added. Branches lay
everywhere and he fell silent while I
was in the midst of selecting one. I
got the branch to his hands just as these were
vanishing but he wrenched it from my grasp.
Listen to David Beach read ‘Poet’s Justice‘
The Iliad 10
Sleep turned to death for the Thracian king
Rhesus and twelve of his men, roused to
oblivion by Diomedes. They had only
just arrived at Troy and failing the first
test of prowess, keeping good watch, were
snuffed out the merest victims. Odysseus
meanwhile, since the king wouldn’t be needing
them, took Rhesus’s magnificent chariot
horses. So, as the spectacle of the
allies, now neutrals, was appalling the
Trojan camp, the perpetrators of this
exemplary ruthlessness made their own
lines in style, to the question whether a
god must have given them such creatures.
Rhesus and twelve of his men, roused to
oblivion by Diomedes. They had only
just arrived at Troy and failing the first
test of prowess, keeping good watch, were
snuffed out the merest victims. Odysseus
meanwhile, since the king wouldn’t be needing
them, took Rhesus’s magnificent chariot
horses. So, as the spectacle of the
allies, now neutrals, was appalling the
Trojan camp, the perpetrators of this
exemplary ruthlessness made their own
lines in style, to the question whether a
god must have given them such creatures.
Listen to David Beach read ‘The Iliad 10‘
The Iliad 11
It was becoming congested on the
sidelines. Agamemnon, Diomedes and
Odysseus were forced from the fray hurt,
also someone charioted back to the
boats by Nestor. Achilles asked Patroclus
to find out who, this departure from
indifference to the Greeks’ woes like
presenting his own breast, or heel, to
Nestor’s spear. The old man, a compulsive
reminiscer, could nonetheless be so
calculatingly, his tale of youthful
exploits first running Patroclus through,
then on, as if a needle commissioned
by the Fates, to its greater target.
sidelines. Agamemnon, Diomedes and
Odysseus were forced from the fray hurt,
also someone charioted back to the
boats by Nestor. Achilles asked Patroclus
to find out who, this departure from
indifference to the Greeks’ woes like
presenting his own breast, or heel, to
Nestor’s spear. The old man, a compulsive
reminiscer, could nonetheless be so
calculatingly, his tale of youthful
exploits first running Patroclus through,
then on, as if a needle commissioned
by the Fates, to its greater target.
Listen to David Beach read ‘The Iliad 11‘
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David Beach lives in Wellington. He is a strong believer in the use of personae i.e. has no idea, no idea at all officer, what might have happened to that missing critic. A book of his poems, Abandoned Novel, was published by Victoria University Press in 2006.