The Truth About Unicorns
by Doris Brett
In the town they talked about unicorns,
and what young girls should know
of them (white as bone and hard with their beauty).
How they’d come down (cloud but not cloud), streaming,
milk from the mountains,
undammed, maddening
horses, the image of silver, quick-shimmered
slickering snorters where we’d lie (night living
and behind our eyes), unskinned by sleep
into nights when each of us dreamed of riding on unicorn,
forward for the hollow, that one particular spot where you fit,
sit over muscles bunching like bananas, big
and splitting the seams of your senses . . .
Doris Brett is a psychologist, bread maker and prose author as well
as a poet. Her publisher, Random House, says:
Doris
Brett resides in Melbourne with her husband and daughter. She is a clinical
psychologist as well as a multi-award winning author and poet. She has been
published in America, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Poland and Russia. She has
been awarded numerous literary awards for her poetry, including the Queensland
Premier's Poetry Award (1994). IN THE CONSTELLATION OF THE CRAB, a collection
of poems that arose out of her experience with ovarian cancer was short-listed
for the National Book Council Poetry Prize.
I became acquainted with Doris in the early
days of the Poets Union of Australia. We used to encounter each other at
the same poetry festivals and performances. I invited her to address one of my writers’ classes on the subject of dreams
and their relation to poetry — a subject in which, as a psychologist, she had a
special interest and expertise — and she held us spellbound.
She also developed ‘Annie Stories’ to
help children overcome fears and problems.
Her powerful memoir of her experience with
ovarian cancer, Eating the Underworld, is reviewed in detail here, where it is also
available for purchase. You can find more of her books at Amazon, and at Random House.
The Truth About Unicorns is one of her
earliest published poems and still one of the best loved.
Poems and photos used in ‘I Wish I’d Written
This’ remain the property of the copyright holders (usually their authors).
Rosemary;
ReplyDeleteFantastic! I am so grateful that I now know of Doris Brett.
Thank you,
Delaina
Yes, it would have be thrilling to have written this. It is funny how one poem can sink the hook, create a connection, leave me wanting more words. I did not know of Doris Brett, now I do.
ReplyDeletethank you.
Rosemary, as always, you present us with a fascinating poet. I am intrigued by the sound of her memoir and will check it out. Thanks for your work in featuring these wonderful poets week after week.
ReplyDelete