This essay undertakes a close reading of Kevin Hart's poem "The Voice of Brisbane" alongside three pertinent voices. The first voice belongs to Yves Bonnefoy and concerns his translation of the French term évidence. Taking into account Hart's own admiration of Bonnefoy, this essay contrasts the kinds of experiential and poetic claims that the two poets make. The second voice belongs to St. John of the Cross. Hart's poem owes much to the kinds of mystical meditation that St. John advocates. The third voice belongs to Synesius of Cyrene, a fifthcentury Platonist and bishop, whose poem "Awake My Soul" bears an uncanny resemblance to the pattern of Hart's work.
This article examines three contemporary Australian poems that concern themselves with matters of the sacred within the modern Australian city. Noting that Australian poetry and the sacred have often been studied in terms of the landscape, the article approaches these poems as part of an undercurrent of spiritual or sacred writing that takes up urban Australian spaces as important and resonant sites. Through readings of Kevin Hart's 'Night Music' (2008), Jill Jones's 'Where We Live ' (2007) and Benjamin Frater's 'Ourizen' (2011), the article demonstrates the various ways that contemporary Australian spirituality is poetically expressed in cities such as Brisbane, Adelaide and Sydney.
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