Bio
Denise O'Hagan is an award-winning editor and poet, based in Sydney. She has a background in commercial book publishing in the UK and Australia. In 2015, she set up her own imprint, Black Quill Press, through which she assists independent authors. Her poetry is published widely and has received numerous awards, most recently the Dalkey Poetry Prize 2020. https://denise-ohagan.com
Denise O'Hagan
Do you wonder
Do youstill sometimes wonder
as I wonderwhat might have been
had each of us been spared the knowledge
of the other? Would we have
crafted our own identities with greater care
been truer to our essential natures resisted
drilling holes into the bedrock of our
self-esteemso assiduously tending the
pain that blossomed? But let's not forget
when cordoned by the inviolability
of youth how loath we were
to face our fall from grace!