David Miller was born in 1950 in Melbourne, Australia, and has lived in London since 1972. His publications include The Dorothy and Benno Stories (Reality Street Editions, 2005), Spiritual Letters (Series 3) (Stride, 2005), The Waters of Marah: Selected Prose 1973-1995 (Shearsman Books, 2005), Art and Disclosure: Seven Essays (Stride, 1998), some poetry editions and many other books of poetry, fiction and criticism. Besides he is one of the featured poets in the Take Five 06 anthology (Shoestring Press, 2006), holds a doctorate in English Literature from the University of London and is employed as a Research Fellow in English Literature at Nottingham Trent University, where he also teaches creative writing. As well as being a writer, David is a clarinettist who has performed as part of Blue Cross and The Mind Shop, as a duo with Ken White, and occasionally as a solo performer.

Quelle: poetry p f


Spiritual Letters (Series 3, #11)

He sat on a rock in the field, singing to the sheep. Another day, he sang

Mahler to the trumpeting elephants in the zoo. As we drove through the

gateway, a dog with a crippled back leg came out to meet us. Later we

went down to a restaurant by the sea, sharing a meal of fish and octopus

and drinking wine. Fragments of plaster, some with reed impressions,

suggested the remains of houses built of plant material—palm fronds,

he thought—and plaster. From the street below, the old actress could be

seen standing at the mirror framed in lights, preparing for the evening

performance. The boy’s limbs now affected by the medication, he found

that he could move only with difficulty; so his mother helped him to

walk the short distance to the hospital. After a long night of drinking his

friend returned home, and removed several eggs from the refrigerator

for juggling. A single sandal-print impressed in the pavement, rapidly

filling with rainwater. On the floor of his bedroom he had arranged his

clothes in pile after pile.

David Miller
in collection Spiritual Letters (Series 3), 2005,
Stride, ISBN 1-905024-03-7