Correspondences                                                          Page 57

“Patterns", the final poem in the latest "Collected Poems", sees a world

surrounded by potential danger. The “blaze of light along the blade" (“Woman

to Man") is now a ring of fire threatening the earth with destruction, “bombs

and warheads crouch waiting their time." In its attempt to "reconcile opposing

principles", the poem suggests that .”Perhaps the dark itself is a source of

meaning." And it goes on:

The play of opposites, their interpenetration -

there's the reality, the fission and the fusion.

Impossible to choose between absolutes, ultimates

Pure light, pure lightlessness cannot be perceived.

"Twisted are the hearts of men - dark powers possess them

Burn the distant evildoer, the unseen sinner."

That prayer to Agni, fire-god, cannot be prayed

We are all of us bon of fire, possessed by darkness.

Spirituality in the poetry of Judith Wright is neither "pure light" nor "pure

lightlessness" The tension between fire and darkness is maintained The two

exist together and belong together. The existence of evil is acknowledged and

not denied or ignored. Blame for the works of evil cannot be placed on any

“distant evildoer" or “unseen sinner". Both the Killer and the Maker are

within. Asking a fire-god to remove the "evildoer is a prayer that "cannot be

prayed."