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