AustLit

When as God’s novice, I lay in my cell thinking, night after night

'of that cape, the one Zhivago put around her shoulder—

of his arm encircling her waist, as slender as the bell light

of snow on her sleeve, in the plaits of her hair—and now I am older

but no wiser, for it seems I still lie awake at night

thinking of that cape, the one he put around her shoulder—

'Motet: a composition adapted to sacred words in the elaborate polyphonic church style; an emblem. Addressed to and inspired by the time-honoured figure of a mistress or muse, Homer Rieth’s sonnets cascade into each other across rocks of autobiography, memory and desire. From the young man’s yearning for the religious life to the poet’s mature ruminations he sings to his American Lola and to us. His unaccompanied voice becomes its own choir.' (Publication summary)