Still Lives
By Lindsay Tuggle
Published 20 October 2023
It’s through a thin curtain
she doesn’t enter
the wonder rooms where
moderns have no myths.
Ornament is all but absent.
Animal brides arrive
on an ad hoc basis.
Still lives in technicolour
by contrast
certain corners of the house
stand out
boxes of light and shade.
Glass banishes the present
in favor of a past restored.
Strangers
only peripherally connected
by bloodline
a genealogy of blank pages.
The human all too human
every material an encounter clash
scars of our beloved selves.
Still we believe in
mass habits of language
diffusion riots
white like
radio waves
or
the notes of a diary
lacerations we live in
inchoate against the altars
an elegy with no end in sight.
This poem was commissioned by Red Room Poetry for Marrickville High School. In August 2011, two one-day poetry workshops were conducted in the school's library. They were run by Australian poet Dr. Lindsay Tuggle and former Education Director Tony Britten, respectively, who worked with Year 9, 10 and 11 students. Inspired by the Toilet Doors public poetry project and the concept of guerrilla poetry, participants experimented with forms like blackout poetry and newspaper collage poetry.
A special launch of poems and artworks produced during the workshops was held in the library on Monday 2 April 2012, where Lindsay also performed 'Still Lives'. Teacher Librarian Ms. Angela Rega edited and produced a stunning publication of student poems and photographs for the launch. You can read more about the project in this article from The Sydney Morning Herald.