My heart sings out
Every morning
Trying on
Different melody
Not to drown out
In synchrony
With droning
Whirring life
All around me
Unknown songs
Respond saying
Who is it
You are calling?
Waiting for like echo
Chamber music
Of a heart
Fearful storm of lightning
unaccompanied
by rain or thunder
Flashes
singularly vivid
showing plainly
rugged outline
Wild landscape
from rocky fortress
witnessed
Hot weather parched
herbage of plain
to perfect dryness
A flash
more tremendous
suddenly set it
a blaze
Alarmed
in the tenement
occupied
Shortly relieved
from apprehensions
copious shower
extinguishing the flame
Erasure poem – ‘On Christmas Rock, 1840’ – from JE Calder, 1849, Some account of the country lying between Lake St Clair and Macquarie Harbour, Tasmanian Journal of Natural Science, 3:415-429.
Watching uncertainties
Ebb and flow
As warm cool currents
Change their mind
All year round
Receiving gifts
Too generous
For what we are
Suspended
Weightless
Insides heavy
Protest at lack of substance
Washed up grounded
Gasping crawling
Back to shoal
Do it all again
Centrepiece draws all attention
Table decoration licks
Falling drops of candle wax
Flicking in the breeze
Of open window
Soft whistling through teeth
Of leaf blades nestled
Together giving shelter
In tea tree and banksia
Boughs nod with agreement
Their finery would inspire
Long lasting admiration
Should their limbs
Ever capture her attention
Meanwhile a family
Of feathered miniatures
Snug handsomely
Peering from the outside
Of timber bars
Mirrored trap never fly or tap
Inside a cell
Mundane human paper sheets
Make wonderful bug feed
Nestling leaves
Full of words to please
While outside unnoticed
Every bird, bee and butterfly
Is free to dance with ease
Hiding in the shadow
Golden yellow halo
Curls and waves fall
Frame her face
Fixed on me
Two sapphire gems
So blindingly bright
I take pictures
With my mind
Side-glances
While capturing
All the beauty
Earth and sea
In between
Rocky shore
Where still waters
Lap at oyster shells
Wings open to glide
Over river mirror
Reflections everywhere
Stories shared
Held carefully
Between clasped hands
Sweet nothingness
Grieves me today
Bound up in a pitcher
Of happiness
A contagion
Evoked by image
She gave
Meditating
As if sleeping
A surreal dream
Her absence filled
By the allure
Of elixir
Imagining
The time I had
With you
Glistening
Frost between us melts
Sun rays touch
Sweeping to and fro
Pulsing on ribbons
Streamers glistening baubles
Twirling with rising tide
Teasing her threads
Of sterling silver
Platinum
Softly wavering
All is quiet
Eyelids broaden
Peripheral vision
Stunning finds
Laced with regret
Submerged fields
Bottlegreen satin
Thickets thinning
With age old wisdom
Does anyone listen
When seeing nothing
Left for our children?
She paddles solo
As the echo chamber
In my head repeats deafeningly
What's down there?
Sunshine is kissing
My eyes wide open
Soft hairs of leaves
Tickling my senses
While flirting
Yellow honey breast
Darts between
Banksia bristles
My mind at ease
To know bliss
All around me
All polished performance of lyric
Chime like a babbling brook
Met in my ears by
Sweeping deep ocean current
Esteemed verse lost in extremes
On all appearances
A sunlit icecap
Underneath glacial still
Torrents melting
Surging along with inevitable flow
Not knowing where to go
Whether to land
On quiet shores again
Carried in resignation
North where steel blue
Moves into folds
Of turquoise, yellow
Above bright coral
Skirts lying on sandy knees
Though carrying within
Long memory
Pieces of unseen life
Held south willingly
Hostage to elements
Unpredictability
How many seasons till
Released from heavenly grip
Fresh burst rush of spring
Melts into arms
Of tropical current
Gentle curl round
Rest on shores
All wings now spawn
A flowery mix
Of cool and warm
