Category: Poem
What Day?
Was it today
or yesterday
Driving along
Happy for no reason
Everything clean and clear
No evil anywhere
No fear
On my way
So what
if my son
is not home
or does not answer
the phone
or the door
Happiness continues
Did you see that magpie
in the olive grove?
Clear vision
as if a pane
of frosted glass
in place
not to reveal
but to disguise
has been removed
Dispelled
by an unseen hand
for an unknown reason
Calm recognition
of a different
state of mind
Is this wisdom?
Pleasant though
not quite joyful
Like the day
Cloudy with spotted sun
Not yet raining
although it might
Calmly happy
for no reason
No reason at all
No reason at all
Yerrabi Track, Namadgi National Park, Australian Capital Territory
Driving the road
Unpaved
Potholed
Stopping at a space
Previously known
Stepping onto the track
Recovery of memories
Erased
Starting over
Drizzling day
Break through sun failure
Doubling down
On rain gear
No set goal
No set time
No measurements
Burned out log
Forest remnants
Damped down
No smells
No bird calls
Unseen frogs croaking
Limited colours
Walking on
Looking up
Ghost stumps
Burned black
New growth
Shooting from trunks
Shooting from soil
Defying destruction
Bushy grey green
Redefining a once forest
Walking on
Drizzled on
On and on
Up and up
Looking down
Tiny purple flowers
Thumbnail size
Could be orchids
Thoughts leap to partner
Limited by Parkinson’s
Returned to car
Unable to complete
The track
Reach the ridge
Joy of wild orchids
Thinking of him
Alone not lonely
Ridge arrival
Unforeseen
All directions
Hills upon hills
The Trees
Dedicated to the trees of Callum Brae Nature Reserve, Canberra, Australia which are under threat from a proposed crematorium complex
For me
It’s the trees
The gum trees
They welcomed me
To this land
When no one else did
Where are you from?
What’s that accent?
Go back to where you came from
But where is that
where did I come from
So many places and spaces
And peoples
And struggles
And protests
And learning
And sharing
Go back to where you came from
Embrace them all
And I do
When I stop
And stare at a gum tree
I know you
You know me
I embrace you
I look up to you
I admire you
Your colours your shapes
Each tree unique
Yet grounded in the same soil
Gum trees are elsewhere
Where I’ve lived
California
Seen as a threat
Live through the dry
Can catch fire
Gum trees in California
all look the same
Is it because they were torn
Out of their original home
in Kenya
Gum trees all look the same
But in Australia
Each one different
Orange
Pink
White
Grey
Brown
Black
Shaggy bark
Smooth bark
Scribbly bark
When in doubt
Where you are
Do you belong
Look at a gum tree
Admire their shape
Their tenacity
Their survival through fire
Walk up to the tree
Look up to the tree
Embrace the tree
Then you will know that
You are alive
You belong
You are the tree
One day I will be a tree
Or perhaps I always was
I try to write
To paint
To sketch
A gum tree
Or a forest
I have not yet captured
Their essence
On paper
Sydney Nolan
Captured the essence
Of gum tree forests
Yet he had to have
Ned Kelly
Hiding within
Behind the trees
What is the relationship
Of Ned Kelly to gum trees?
What about the wombat hole
And the dead soldier who fell in
What does this say about the settlers
The colonialists relationship to the land?
Was it Ned Kelly who opposed them?
Was it the land itself
that could not be
Completely conquered?
I see the gum trees daily
I think of them daily
I embrace them daily
This is what keeps me going
When denied by society
The trees are still there
Road Kill
or how to be undepressed
Drive the joyful way
Not the quickest
Notice the dead rabbit
in the road
Picked at by
a large black raven
Quietly move towards it
in an electric vehicle
Honk the bird
out of the way
Notice
Twelve or more
pink crested galahs on a wire
usually seen on the ground
pecking away
while pushing Eliana’s pram
she’s watching
as am I
as we quietly creep closer
whoosh they fly away
Notice
Old friends
the eucalypts
arching
swaying
more creative
in their shapes
and colours
than my paintings
Drive the joyful way
Notice
Australia Australian Broadcasting Corporation book review Book titles camping Canberra Charles Eugene Purdy Christian Science Dean Koontz E. S. Hutchison Eastern Oklahoma State Mental Hospital family and fiction father fiction Gary Snyder Helen Purdy Kansas Kansas City Kenneth Patchen Kenya Kosciusko National Park Life Expectancy Love Pirate MidWest Missouri Nairobi New South Wales nobody’s a long time novel novels as history Oakland Oklahoma Pinch River poetry public library reconciliation title Tracking the Human trees Tulsa Tulsa Daily World USA Vinita W. Lon Hutchison Whales
Australia Australian Broadcasting Corporation book review Book titles camping Canberra Charles Eugene Purdy Christian Science Dean Koontz E. S. Hutchison Eastern Oklahoma State Mental Hospital family and fiction father fiction Gary Snyder Helen Purdy Kansas Kansas City Kenneth Patchen Kenya Kosciusko National Park Life Expectancy Love Pirate MidWest Missouri Nairobi New South Wales nobody’s a long time novel novels as history Oakland Oklahoma Pinch River poetry public library reconciliation title Tracking the Human trees Tulsa Tulsa Daily World USA Vinita W. Lon Hutchison Whales
Australia Australian Broadcasting Corporation book review Book titles camping Canberra Charles Eugene Purdy Christian Science Dean Koontz E. S. Hutchison Eastern Oklahoma State Mental Hospital family and fiction father fiction Gary Snyder Helen Purdy Kansas Kansas City Kenneth Patchen Kenya Kosciusko National Park Life Expectancy Love Pirate MidWest Missouri Nairobi New South Wales nobody’s a long time novel novels as history Oakland Oklahoma Pinch River poetry public library reconciliation title Tracking the Human trees Tulsa Tulsa Daily World USA Vinita W. Lon Hutchison Whales
Rocky shore
A rocky shore
A place to share
With whales, wallabies, lizards
Not mine alone
Put aside thoughts of control
No limits of rocky shore
Lines of whales
Twisted gum trees
Yellow flower vines
No limits to sharing
Freedom of small children
Gleeful exchange with wallabies
Walking by twos low tide
Colourful hats on beach
Joyful seen from above
The US did this
The US did this
The US did this
The tragedy of Afghanistan
Used the people of Afghanistan
as collateral damage
in their Cold War
against the Russians
The US did this
The pain of a poet
writing about his father
with Alzheimers
Compare the pain
of being born in
a country of Imperialism
A country of
death and destruction
Crisscrossing the world
like an all-powerful global tornado
creating a wide path
of death and destruction
The poet
trying and failing
to get his father
with Alzheimers
to use the toilet
The woman born
in the USA
trying and failing
to get her country
to respect human rights
to give up global hegemony
to give up militarism, war
and nuclear weapons
Watching Afghans trying
to escape the Taliban
created by the US
to attack the Russians
The pain becomes anger
shouting at the television
The US did this
Re-reading the Heart’s Garden
Rereading The Heart’s Garden
The Garden’s Heart
By Kenneth Rexroth
has sustained me
through decades
His words continue
Almost unknown
Almost forgotten
But they are there
And re reading
Tears of recognition
of thanks and also of sorrow
What else have I forgotten
What else have I left behind
What else is there
To think
To do
To write
To paint
To believe
To remember
What happens to the environment
the earth
the forest
the birds
the plants
the animals
encased in layers of concrete
glass and steel
overwhelming the natural
yet doomed to failure
to falling
Thank you Kenneth Rexroth
Clouds and Trees
Looking out the window
through the glass sliding door
Clouds moving across the sky
Grey underbellies
White above
Illuminated by the sun
Blue patches in between
Always moving
Changing shapes
Cloud diversity
Tree diversity
Branches straight
Branches convoluted
Branches intertwined
Branches bare
Branches with leaves
Moving with the wind
Trunks stationery
Roots underneath
Out of sight
Pushing earth
Enveloping rocks
Clinging to the side
of eroded stream beds
Invisible movement
of trees
Visible movement
of clouds
Look up again
Sky more blue
Clouds
motionless
Suspended
Swallowed up
One wisp drifts away
Dissolving in the blue
Shapes slowly shifting
Grey and white masses
Silhouette flying across
small black bird
How long
How long will I stay
in this expanded space
Walking through life
with increased senses
Aware of nuance
Listening to a talk
about the intelligence of birds
Thinking of a book
Thinking of a friend
Thinking of family
Thinking of life
Advising a friend
to write a fictionalized
story of her family history
To put her father in the world
To respect his life
Not to honour or elevate
That’s what I’ve done
with my father
Tracking the Human: nobody's a long time 