Europa Poets' Gazette No. 71, March 2010

Feature Poet
On Reading The Work Of Genevieve Ryan (1984-2005)
Death is absurd at the best of times.
I am reminded of Truchanas, the great
witness of the wilderness, who drowned
in the river he loved. He played Sibelius
while the doomed lake lit up the room.
And Dombrovski, the imagist, the master
photographer, who died in the grasp of
his majestic art. He too liked rivers
and saved them when he could.
His funeral was held on your mountain.
The same mountain, where
on ice-smooth ancient forest rocks
you slipped out into the void, while
all around you, sentinel trees stood silent.
In ancient religious scriptures it says
that life and death will pass away.
But water will always flow, somewhere,
like love,
And memory, happy and clear.
(Genevieve Ryan slipped and fell to her death at Newtown Falls on Mount Wellington in Tasmania in February 2005. Her prolific journals, including poetry and other writings, have been edited by her mother Elizabeth and published as Regards, some girl with words. Available in book shops or through Sid Harta publishers, Melbourne.)
© Cameron Hindrum