Things of beauty

A Bird orchid

a bi-plane like dragonfly

an old tree reaching to the sky.

Standing on the earth

watching

storm clouds build

hearing

thunder grumble

seeing

cooling rain drops fall on still water

in a sunshower

those same storm clouds

moving out to sea

and emptying into the ocean.

Understanding the seasons

witnessing the world spin on its axis

the intricate dance of planets and moons and stars.

Standing on the earth

for a brief lifetime

soothed by these things of beauty

and feeling humbled by my place in the world.

Heatwave Tamworth

Heatwave Tamworth

Oxley Park cowers under the stinging sun
weighing down on wilted straw dry stone grass.

White Box crowns glare harsh flat,
in blinding light that melts bitumen in Peel Street.

Wilga leaves weep for the silent bush, where no bird
has the energy to sing, and Kangaroos shelter
in the scant shade of mock olives.

Even the diurnal ant shift is on strike, and only
big black bush flies murmurring in disgruntled voices
brave the infernal heat.

Quinkin 2001

Poetry

November Flowers. 

Gibraltar Smokebush 

Blinding white inflorescence leans against granite tor,washed dark by a spring shower. 

Flame Trees 

Hills bleed bright red from scree slope clinging darkest green dry rainforest. 

Narrow-leaved Paperbark. 

Linear strips of creamy crowns,fill Purgatory Creek with hungry Lorikeets and honeyeaters.  Jacaranda and Silky Oak. 

Standing above red roof tile,suburban pockets of purple and gold glide past the Tangara’s window.

I wrote that i n 2002 after a field trip. Wouldn’t mind going out in the field again.