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by John Carroll

Ancient sandhills
Language: English 
Chosen for Diff
Ancient sandhills
Brought us there
Created in the
Desert
Eons ago
Formed as a
Great wall on the
Horizon
Intersecting our sense of the
Just with another
Karma
Less human but
More
Noble
Or
Perhaps more
Quiescent than
Recent Homo
Sapiens
Tells
.
.
At the grey walls
Built like a
City long ago
Destroyed the
Ephemeral
Forms on the
Ground
Held
Insights in their
Jagged
Kabbalistic
Lettering
.
.
Attempting to understand we stopped
By the sand hills and
Centred ourselves trying to
Discern the
Eternal
From our car radio we played
Great sounds of an orchestra
Hovering over a land
In our minds
.
.
A lake of lost water
Broken in the
Clear
Desert
Explaining nothing
.
.
Archaeologists found evidence of
Burials here
Cremated bones with a
Deposit of red ochre
Evidence of the
Fire of ceremony
Gatherings where
Humanity saw
Itself in
Joint awe
Kinship and
Love
.
.
A
Bugle
Call
Denotes the
Exit of
Fire
Gone on the
Horizon
.
. 
A stone circle
Built by my ancestors
Circling
Destiny
Echoing
Far sky a
.
Great wall
Here
Inspired by no
Joint
Knowledge no
Love no
Meaning
Nothing
.
Only a
Presence
.
.
Approaching a memorial
Built by no one
Calls for a
Decorum to
.
Enter where
Faith is in the
Ground where
Humans lie
In which past
Joys are laid as a
Keel in the earth’s
Long
Motion into
Night

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

  • by John Carroll , "Lake Mungo" [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Clare Maclean (b. 1958), "Let all mortal flesh keep silence", 1984/2012, first performed 2012 [ bass and string quartet ], Australian Music Centre
        Publisher: Australian Music Centre [external link]  [sung text not yet checked]

Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2026-09-05
Line count: 113
Word count: 240

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This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

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