Damen O’Brien’s poem ‘The Handshake’ has won First Prize in the 2020 Newcastle Poetry Competition<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p><strong>The Handshake<\/strong><\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p>When he reached out his hand to you,<\/p>\n<p>the father of the boy your government had<\/p>\n<p>murdered for a policy, or so the papers said,<\/p>\n<p>you did not take it. Why was that?<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps you felt he offered something heavy<\/p>\n<p>as a neutron star, slick in-falling burden<\/p>\n<p>of despair, too hard to grasp, or gift<\/p>\n<p>of unwanted knowledge, poison chalice of<\/p>\n<p>truth, the wither and the charring of that<\/p>\n<p>inconvenient light, which torches out self-<\/p>\n<p>deception. Perhaps you know that you can<\/p>\n<p>stopper up your ears, can hold your heart<\/p>\n<p>in the cold ocean between each beat, can<\/p>\n<p>place a lock upon your tongue, if you must,<\/p>\n<p>but a handshake is part of the oldest language<\/p>\n<p>and will disclose what you hold back, what<\/p>\n<p>the politburo, apparatchik wish you not to say,<\/p>\n<p>rehearse it though you might: limp fish, sweaty<\/p>\n<p>or dry palm, masterful and firm, crush<\/p>\n<p>and domineering, pull-in and shoulder squeeze,<\/p>\n<p>tool of politicians and of stars, but<\/p>\n<p>more is taken in a handshake, than is given,<\/p>\n<p>comfort if it is offered, or disdain, the<\/p>\n<p>reaching out of two creatures separated by<\/p>\n<p>a frangible and uncertain strait, the cellular<\/p>\n<p>barriers of policy and position, and grief,<\/p>\n<p>which is the yawning chasm over all. Perhaps<\/p>\n<p>none of this: you\u2019d turned away, the cameras<\/p>\n<p>flash and fruitless dissections fill tomorrow\u2019s news.<\/p>\n<p>So few opportunities to reach out, so few to take,<\/p>\n<p>to show amity and kindness, in our separate<\/p>\n<p>galaxies of skin. Perhaps it was a media<\/p>\n<p>stunt, an impossible trap, an ambush of<\/p>\n<p>ideologies, but you cannot hide from<\/p>\n<p>a handshake, and to shake a hand both men<\/p>\n<p>must come close enough to touch and wear<\/p>\n<p>each other\u2019s fingerprints burning on their palms.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p>Damen O\u2019Brien is an Australian poet.\u00a0\u00a0In 2019, he won the Welsh International Poetry Prize, the Val Vallis Prize for an Unpublished Poem and has previously won the Peter Porter Poetry Prize, the Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize and the New Guard Knightville Poetry Prize amongst many others.\u00a0\u00a0(<a href=\"http:\/\/www.dameno.org\">www.dameno.org<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Damen O’Brien’s poem ‘The Handshake’ has won First Prize in the 2020 Newcastle Poetry Competition. The Handshake When he reached out his hand…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3084,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,5],"tags":[666,664,604,9],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3083"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3083"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3123,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3083\/revisions\/3123"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p><strong>The Handshake<\/strong><\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p>When he reached out his hand to you,<\/p>\n<p>the father of the boy your government had<\/p>\n<p>murdered for a policy, or so the papers said,<\/p>\n<p>you did not take it. Why was that?<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps you felt he offered something heavy<\/p>\n<p>as a neutron star, slick in-falling burden<\/p>\n<p>of despair, too hard to grasp, or gift<\/p>\n<p>of unwanted knowledge, poison chalice of<\/p>\n<p>truth, the wither and the charring of that<\/p>\n<p>inconvenient light, which torches out self-<\/p>\n<p>deception. Perhaps you know that you can<\/p>\n<p>stopper up your ears, can hold your heart<\/p>\n<p>in the cold ocean between each beat, can<\/p>\n<p>place a lock upon your tongue, if you must,<\/p>\n<p>but a handshake is part of the oldest language<\/p>\n<p>and will disclose what you hold back, what<\/p>\n<p>the politburo, apparatchik wish you not to say,<\/p>\n<p>rehearse it though you might: limp fish, sweaty<\/p>\n<p>or dry palm, masterful and firm, crush<\/p>\n<p>and domineering, pull-in and shoulder squeeze,<\/p>\n<p>tool of politicians and of stars, but<\/p>\n<p>more is taken in a handshake, than is given,<\/p>\n<p>comfort if it is offered, or disdain, the<\/p>\n<p>reaching out of two creatures separated by<\/p>\n<p>a frangible and uncertain strait, the cellular<\/p>\n<p>barriers of policy and position, and grief,<\/p>\n<p>which is the yawning chasm over all. Perhaps<\/p>\n<p>none of this: you\u2019d turned away, the cameras<\/p>\n<p>flash and fruitless dissections fill tomorrow\u2019s news.<\/p>\n<p>So few opportunities to reach out, so few to take,<\/p>\n<p>to show amity and kindness, in our separate<\/p>\n<p>galaxies of skin. Perhaps it was a media<\/p>\n<p>stunt, an impossible trap, an ambush of<\/p>\n<p>ideologies, but you cannot hide from<\/p>\n<p>a handshake, and to shake a hand both men<\/p>\n<p>must come close enough to touch and wear<\/p>\n<p>each other\u2019s fingerprints burning on their palms.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p>Damen O\u2019Brien is an Australian poet.\u00a0\u00a0In 2019, he won the Welsh International Poetry Prize, the Val Vallis Prize for an Unpublished Poem and has previously won the Peter Porter Poetry Prize, the Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize and the New Guard Knightville Poetry Prize amongst many others.\u00a0\u00a0(<a href=\"http:\/\/www.dameno.org\">www.dameno.org<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Damen O’Brien’s poem ‘The Handshake’ has won First Prize in the 2020 Newcastle Poetry Competition. The Handshake When he reached out his hand…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3084,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,5],"tags":[666,664,604,9],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3083"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3083"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3123,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3083\/revisions\/3123"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.nclacommunity.org\/content\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}