Luke Patterson

Authority of Creeks

Poem, fabric, wood, rope, 2024, courtesy of the artist and Running Dog.

Not for sale

About the artist: Patterson is a Gamilaroi poet, educator and musician living on Gadigal lands. His poetry has appeared in Cordite, Plumwood Mountain, Rabbit, Running Dog and The Suburban Review. You will also find his work in anthologies including NANGAMAY dream MANA gather DJURALI grow as well as Best of Australian Poems 2023. Patterson’s research and creative pursuits are grounded in extensive work with First Nations and other community-based organisations across Australia. For PHOTO:SYNTHESIS, Patterson presents a newly conceived installation of his poetry.

I adore my sister’s sons & this tributary crow town

laughter of industry rhythm streams flow from

dense seedbank sky corridor to ward ancient

economies precious Gadigal way Bidjigal pockets

they're listening to she-oak Wangal voices regrowing

yarns on occupied land spun and stored along

Wolli valley walk sustaining familial inflections accents

rusted auto- orchestrations once a chain of mobile

ponds & from their broken long before so far from

homelands croaking english grew cliff face caves filled

fossil flood waters with broken glass wetland salt marsh

counterparts exhaling pan-greenery & a wound

cadenza remnant filled this shady patch healing topsoil

tears their properly good ol' holiday grassroot voices

all day sing memory's out landish creek covered ruins

in love & war with every light-speckled lizard sipping grevillea

dew or whispers of some such incident where new growth

leaves pollen sun on their faces that would babble like

the Country mind & spring breezes an image a shady grove

pooled lowest point a story black magic stemlets

tilt & dance animate in joyful tangles