Need I say?

I miss you, dearly
So much so
I recall clearly
Lottery days
Sunning ourselves or seeking shade
Silence listens to our breathing
A seat at your picnic table
Winning
How lucky I was
Like a billionaire
With nothing in hand
But love and admiration

Need I say?
A past never erased
Nor wished away
Held onto, still as
Cool aqua tarn
Smiles to the gills
Though I recall
My anxious face
Mirrored in yours
How I wished
Upon lucky orange belly feather
Sacred shells under webbed feet
How to make you happier
Than ever before, shall we?

Need I say?
I regret one thing
We are a culmination
Of all that had been
I longed for sweet escapism
Take your hand into the blue
Drift on cloudy scenes
From breakfast till noon
Ride the racing waves
Till breath escapes
Revive till night
Closes our eyes
Once again
Opossom Bay, Tasmania

Champagne smile

Waves of frivolity wash
Over lips and fizz
On tongue

Modest solemnity looks
Over end of flute
On queue

Taken in by ocean blues
Over years of wonder
On edge

Poised for next message
Over silent movies
On video

Blink and miss chance
Over silver spoon
On frills

Playing words and hearts
Over rendered
On tune

Suite of expectations
Over honour
On you
Russell falls, Mt Field National Park Tasmania

Love and other flowers

That bespoke place in the brain
Next to memory
Smell and taste
Lead me to dream awake

Lashings of cream with rhubarb cake
Pearl white shells sit idly by
As she comes and goes
Lucky to be plucked from the sea

Eager hands admired so brilliantly
Abalone bilateral symmetry
Reused diaries
Tip toe through last year

Ruminations on cake and cream
Another few hundred photographs
Under my belt
A haunted belief

Things are still not as they seem
Ritual of coffee making
Resurrects the voice of the past
Reciting how it's made

We always begin again until the end
Living breathing bodily houses
full of living apparitions
Of love and other flowers
Gaulthera hispida. Copperleaf snowberry. Lake Dobson, Mt Field National Park Tasmania

Never erased

Tears spilled
Into ink well
Until overflowed
Onto blank page
Of future days
Now never erased

If I'd begged
Bowed down to power
Where would I be now?
Holding the broken limbs
Of my worn out pride
Barely alive
Pterostylis decurva, Summer greenhood, kunanyi / Mt Wellington Tasmania

Christmas miracles

Each year I gift myself
A new year calendar
Full of native flora
From my chosen homeland
To tempt myself
To go out and explore
To fill each day
An unwritten space
With wonder

A plastic Christmas tree
Or ailing pine struck
From side of road
Does nothing for me
Summer draws you out to
Parade through tracks
Winding into hidden
Vales to find
Berries and blossoms
Winged creatures calling
You into the forest
A place of miracles
Magical moments
Cyathodes glauca, Purple Cheeseberry, kunanyi / Mt Wellington Tasmania

Let it bee

Murmuring of nations
Surmised in vibrations
Of one bee

Pang of loss reaches
Extremities diving
Into cool stream

Countless words
Native tongues foreign
Fail to reach ears

Floundering has its moments
Articulating the speechless
Over all these years
Richea scoparia, tarn shelf, Mt Field National Park Tasmania

Tis the strangest season

Creating new traditions 
Out of thin air
For clues I peruse
A loved one's mother's
Poetry book
Counting down the days
Till Santa's sleigh
In haiku
Tickled pink my toes
Wriggle in bed
Family stories never told
I buy the books instead
Family of fungi at Russell Falls, Mt Field National Park, Tasmania