2009 Monash University Prize for Poetry
The winner of the 2009 prize is John Gordon Hand for his poem “Bullfighting With a Conscience”:
‘Bullfighting with a Conscience’ seems framed as an amusingly ironic reflection on the Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca, especially his theory of poetry as ‘duende’. The poem engages with the rather obscure religious overtones of Lorca’s essay, but its immediacy of voice convincingly immerses the reader in direct physical experience. This is a highly accomplished piece of writing, delivered with energy, clarity, and a sense of fun.
Bullfighting With a Conscience
don’t you want to kill a bull?
right now? jump over the horns and
kill? jump, spear, see the forces
leave the animal
at your will?
killing god
yes
killing god
how I’d love killing god
‘when you feel the luckiest person in the world’
killing god:
how I came to be here! then ha! -
sffft!!
rapier in, up to the hilt
and the bull props
once
twice
stalls, legs stiff and
lands on its side
rolling up ever so slightly
rolling down
still
the bull is killed
legs stiff
the rapier amongst
the animal’s animal
meat
tendons
sinew and
cartilage -
skeleton trapped
the only force left
and god,
with sword-handle
between shoulder blades -
god tries to make you feel bad -
‘god puts the
immense sadness
into
Golden Time’
the time that comes when
you kill god
and feel one with the world -
sitting on a train,
listening to music that has it
reading a poem that has it
looking at countryside that is it and
has you
rapier in, up to the hilt
killing bulls
how I’d love killing god
how I love
getting sad and Golden
killing bulls yes
fill my stomach
god-killing
Golden people -
rapier in, up to the hilt
make me immoral
© 2009 John Gordon Hand