On the rocky coast
Sharing love of place
Of sea of whales of trees
Holding it close
Remembrance
On the rocky coast
Whale excitement
Shared with strangers
Spreading love
Expanded possibility
On the rocky coast
Tag: Canberra
A strange equation
Camping plus a slight cold = 4 great books!
While camping, and relaxing in a hammock (a habit acquired in Venezuela) at Mimosa Rocks National Park, I finished two outstanding books by Australian authors:
The Shepherd’s Hut by Tim Winton 
and Stone Sky Gold Mountain by Mirandi Riwoe 
When I first began reading The Shepherd’s Hut, I thought, no, too fast, too much slang… I can’t stay with this. But I kept going and going and going until it was over. Some references to plants, land and Aussie slang that I didn’t know, but no matter… a terrific read.
Easier entry to Stone Sky, Gold Mountain, a novel about the incredible suffering of Chinese migrants in the gold fields of North Queensland, Australia in 1877.
Returned from Mimosa Rocks (on the south east coast of Australia) to Canberra, I had several days of not feeling too great – runny nose and congestion. So more reading! 
I finished Ta-Nehisi Coates novel, The Water Dancer. Densely written, submerging the diligent reader into the underground war on slavery in the United States. (Look up the Underground Railroad on Wikipedia for information about the underground).
Fourth b
ook: Louise Erdrich, The Night Watchman, a novel based on the life of her grandfather, Patrick Gourneau, who successfully fought to stop the termination of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa tribe by the United States Senate in the 1950s. Gloriously written, with poetic language, memorable characters embedded throughout.
I tend to immerse myself in books, read them very quickly and then regret when they’re finished, as if I’ve lost a good friend.
All of the above HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Joyous reading!
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
Immersed in Finland
Immersed in Finland
although I’ve never been
and probably never will go
Finnish films have taken me
into humanity
Skiing though snowy forests
Cutting through ice
A cold cold land
bathed in the warmth of humanity
Why did it take so long
to feel connected
Sleep walking through life
Awake and not aware
Tears of being human
Wanting everyone everywhere
to feel the depth
of their own lives
Poem series: Rain
Poem Series: Bushfires
This is new
12 April 2020
Time
Is that the engine of change?
Is it time?
How do we change
as a person
as a society
My changes
slowing down
not just physically
due to age
i.e. time
but psychologically
with thought
with letting go
letting go
of judgment
of guilt
of anxiety
of worry
Is that what anxiety is?
Worry
Forecasting doom and gloom
Forecasting
Unnamed unknowable
Fear
Yet there is an ongoing crisis
Pandemic of COVID 19
And
Global warming
Consuming the globe
with various levels of understanding
and reaction
How to be more aware
Awake
Alive
To watch a bee circling a shrub
Listen for birds
Squawking
Distant hum of traffic
Sitting on a balcony
On a no street
A slow street
A street where
Three cars pass in a day
More birds pass than cars
Accepting that life is beyond control
Yet not beyond action
Pleased
with a new found ability
to sit and look
and listen
without doing
anything
This is new, different
Loss and grieving
I am in Canberra Australia
Far far from the USA
I grew up in Kansas City
Moved to the San Francisco Bay
Listening to the music
of Soul, Motown
Thinking of that music
today
The hope
The love
The promise
Otis Redding
Aretha Franklin
Nina Simone
The Temptations
Stevie Wonder
Diana Ross
Ray Charles
Smokey Robinson
The Temptations
Sam Cooke
The Supremes
Lou Rawls
Percy Sledge
Margin Gaye
Tina Turner
Gladys Knight and the Pips
(Partial list)
Listening today
on YouTube
after reading about overwhelming
numbers of deaths of African Americans
in the USA
during the COVID 19 pandemic
Mourning the loss
Listening to the music on YouTube
Remembering the joy
in an African American café
in Oakland California
November of 2008
The election of Barack Obama
44th President of the USA
People crying
shouting
dancing
singing
saying “I wish my mother was alive today”
People believing
“A Change is Gonna Come”
(Sam Cooke song)
and yet
and yet
Who is dying today
in the USA
in the pandemic?
Escape
Let me sit
for awhile
and see if I feel better
Alienated by anti-poetic words
Symposium presentations
deadening of affect
My mind engorged by a headache
My limbs growing numb
I hurry out of the room
grab a sugary treat
to sit outside
in the sun
Building walls covered by harsh
techno renderings
of the beauty
of Sidney Nolan paintings
Walls coloured
a blue not of the sky
a blue with more green
than the piercing sky blue above
The walls asymmetric pattern
Yellow tiles in a ragged diagonal
small black square tiles
interspersed randomly
with colourized tiles
The sun on my back
Renewing
I cannot return
to the symposium
Dead words
causing bodily pain
Back inside the gallery
to briefly re-absorb
Sidney Nolan’s paintings
Then going out to catch
the Rapid 6 bus
taking me home
