Your self
How is it possible
How do you define it
What if you are
alien
suppressed
isolated
In a culture
foreign to you
Then
Breakthrough
You are your self
You do belong
You can contribute
to where you are
as you are
Listen up
Speak up
Stand up
You are
Your self
Colours
Outside the bedroom window
Red-orange and yellow-leaved trees
Bright colours
soon to fade
falling to the ground
Trees decked in colours
Behaving like flowers
Bees unimpressed
Black and white magpies flying in and out
A lone cyclist struggles up the hill
Looking for something to hang my sadness on Pain in the arm physical not mental More real or not Sitting in a plane Long flight Scrunched up Dislocation One continent to another One hemisphere to another Out of joint Pain surges Why did you leave Go Where to Where from You’ll never know If nothing else It has to be the trees
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
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
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
Too many poems
Cannot choose
Too many photos
Overwhelmed
Beauty
Camping
Coast
Australia
Too many layers
To my life
Is that what
getting old
means
So many layers
Lost the thread
How to find my way
Back
Remember
Or don’t
If it’s past
Give it up
Go ahead
Yet I hesitate
People left behind
Names on a list
Names on my phone
Some forgotten
Some ignored
For years
For months
Can I reconnect
Can I remember
Should I remember
Too many layers
So many countries
Here I am
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
Trees surpass people
Beautiful reliable diverse
Providing food and living space
To birds and animals
Providing shade and inspiration
To humans
Trees give long lasting comfort and acceptance
The colours, the shapes, the textures
Always inspiring
More beautiful
Than anything made by humans
More beautiful than any sculpture
Any building, any vehicle
Especially eucalypts
Their variety their shapes
their colours, their textures
overwhelming
surprising
delights
trees
Objects around
are not mundane
Each one is unique
Handmade by someone
I purchased them
Their provenance forgotten
Their creator unknown
Undocumented
The objects are here
Surround me
Everyday
Do I see them?
Do I overlook them?
The strange polka-dotted beast
from South Africa
A gift from Gabriel
The soft sculpture of a woman
Diddy-wa-diddy
A craft shop visit with Pilar
in the Midwest USA
Once my best friend and confidante
who years later rejected our friendship
The horse and carriage
from recycled bits of metal
Made in Pakistan
The Kansas City ceramic cow
The Kibera 8 collage, a slum in Nairobi
The beachside print by Sheila
inspired by Tucacas
Emerald Suites Venezuela
The camel train oil painting
from a door-to-door salesman artist
in Islamabad Pakistan
The Faberge glass cat
from my aunt in Florida
How did it get to me?
Muddled past
All are here now
Objects around me
Tracking the Human: nobody's a long time 