Turning Fifty

Judith WrightJudith Wright

1 min read · 12.4K reads

Having known war and peace
and loss and finding,
I drink my coffee and wait
for the sun to rise,With kitchen swept, cat fed,
the day will quiet,
I ******* fifty years
here in the cup.Outside the green birds come
for bread and water.
Their wings wait for the sun
to show their colours.I'll show my colours too.
Though we've polluted
even this air I breathe
And spoiled green earth;though, granted life or death,
death's what we're chosing,
and though these years we live
scar flesh and mind,still, as the sun comes up
bearing my birthday,
having met time and love
I raise my cup -dark, bitter, neutral, clean,
sober as the morning -
to all I've seen and known -
to this new sun.
Judith Wright
About the poet

Judith Wright

1915-2000/Australian After graduating from the Univ. of Sydney, Judith Arundell Wright worked variously as a clerk, secretary, and statistician. She is regarded as one of the most important Australian writers of the 20th cent. Her lyric poetry is marked by se…

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