The bravest woman I know

To the woman with no means
Who spends her time
Cleaning

Cares for all littlest
Both furred and skin
Breeding

Bringing lively heartbeats
Into tearful world
Dreaming

Paring back overgrowth
Give wings to spread
Believing

Turning the other cheek
At the partnership
Leaving

Turning new leaf
Love a fortune
Receiving

Beautiful People

'There's an island I know
They get a little rain
Then it snows
But the feeling seems to flow
It's a place that I call home
We get the music, get the market on the weekend
People don't seem to play pretend
Snow capped mountain looking over my shoulder
The summer seems to get much shorter and colder.


But there's beautiful people
And familiar faces
That's where I want to be
When the cold world races
The people I link with
The friends that I drink with
When the sky is falling down
It's my family I want to be with
The beautiful people.

There's a pub on the corner
You can drink in the street
Philosophy on the lawn
You can wear bare feet
If you stay out late
There's no pollution in the sky
So you can see the stars

Yeah we got problems
A few greedy men
Making decisions with
A cheque book and pen
The paper says
Nobody's cutting the trees
Seems funny to me
When the paper's made
Out of trees.

But there's beautiful people...


-song by Adam Cousens, Beautiful People. (C) 2009

Would I rather?

Some would prefer to be
Locked in a warm embrace
Holding hands on Summer's day
Dressing up for a parade

Underneath veneer new love
Springs to mind the perils of
Weighing strangers with a thumb
Viewed through tiny window

Only thing to weigh my mind
The thought of you riding
Over mountains, rivers, coastlines
Scenery found by your thighs

All the heartache, sweat and tears
Over so many years
Devoting nature's wisdom
To so many ears

Keeping so very busy
With thoughts of making plans
Though there's never any demand
Greater love in absent fan
Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree, merry merry king of the bush is he, laugh kookaburra laugh kookaburra, gay your life must be.‘ ~ Australiana song by Marion Sinclair

Image Credit: Emma Haynes

Higher love

I fell in love with nature
Not for its own sake
Or higher cause
Tickets to posterity

Simply to save me

She was a portal
I climbed through
Out of the capsized
Sinking ship

Took me by the hand
Showed me how to swim
Not for glory, accolades
For my own benefit

Opened my eyes
To all the life
Beneath the surface
I could not see

Though I hold on
To air, words, hands
In her presence
Not to tarnish

The moment

Having dived for riches
Striving to pluck my heart
From the seabed
She reminded me

Just breathe

We are not a muse

Can I see one more time
Says the bee to belle
Taking temperature tells
It is not this hot in May
Ask simply
How can one live
Without the glimpse
Of her inner world
There is nothing at all
For a muse to do
But be oneself
Share but a small
Dose of delight
An open veil
When she trails
With my thoughts
Tailing behind
As I watch
Looking up
For once
In my life
Epacris impressa

Photo credit: Emma Haynes

The undoing

Bowl of red roses
One thorn
Field of clover
One bee
Picnic in grove
One ant
Sleeping dogs lie
One flea

Magnanimous reply
One word
Deep belly sigh
One spurn
Long tanned thigh
One burn

One yearns to turn
A blind eye
To all the ones
That lead to our
Undoing
If we erase
One line
How delightful
It would be

Paring down
All nature's will
To living without
One penetrating
Sting
Would deprive us
Of so many
Beautiful things

Dance till we drop

One by one 
Memories come
As first drops lightly
Before a lavishing

At once dissipating
On parched broken land
Then blanket covering
Moving sun's dwelling
Into hiding

Between them both
Daylight quench thirst
One without the other
No dancing dresses
Come out

Parched tongues dip
Into warm clear springs
Going underground
To yield every colour
Known to the eye

Above and below
Bed of growth
Light touch sows
Till sun retires
Dewdrop gathers
For next bow
In the sky
Dianella tasmanica Tasmanian flax lily. Rosny, lutruwita / Tasmania.