“In my experience, be there when something’s happening.”
I couldn’t resist,
Packed and was gone
In a day.
Caution to the wind.
The one concession
A caravan park away from the river’s edge.
The old hometown.
And the river?
Awesome in flood.
Brown water sweeping debris from the forest floor.
Ancient sandbags compromising levee banks
Leaving townships inundated.
In the forest
Rain-soaked clouds over treetops
Encourage re-incarnated frogs.
Their afternoon chorus
Staccato tympani in the watery landscape
Despite the poised heron statues in the shadows.
Battered by fifteen dry years
Broken river red gums suck hungrily,
Draw moisture into mighty limbs.
Birds respond to the spring siren,
The promise of abundance.
A sacred kingfisher alert at water’s edge.
Black swans sail with young
Over yesterday’s dry grass plains.
Black-jacketed ibis flock to lush pasture.
My reverie is interrupted.
Undermined by relentless floodwater on exposed roots
It is a graceful fall.
No shout of timber.
A tree-high splash followed by silence.
Sinking below the rumbled surface
To a shadowy afterlife
Melting in black mud.
“We’ll turn back here,” our riverboat guide declares.
She has no choice
Our way is blocked.
A narrow escape.
Hearts pounding
Only seconds from our own demise
Every giant now leans ominously.
Back on terra firma
The water creeps up the track.
Barely perceptible.
Lulled by the blaze of sun
A splash startles me.
I turn.
Another heart-stopper.
Thirty kangaroos pounding rhythmically through the water-bound trees.
No sideways glance.
Parting around me.
Far behind follows the big male.
Stops to catch his breath,
Great chest moving steadily.
Looks me in the eye,
Suspending time.
I am awestruck.
Mesmerised.
Enchanted
To be witness to the forest,
Its future sustained.
Kerry MacAulay
27th September 2010
3 comments:
Just beautiful Kerry. I am there with you in the forest and floods. Your poetry is just full of great imagery. I love the unexpected events, the crash of the giant tree (which I can almost hear) and the mob of kangeroos. What a very special moment. Is some of your poetry going into your thesis, I hope so.
Hi Kerry,
what a powerul piece. I really wanted to hear you reciting this adding the emphasis and emotion that was clearly there. To me the first paragraph was really superfluous to the rest of the poem. There is such life in this with the frogs, birds, roos and people. Loved it.
Loved this, Kerry. Somehow the sparseness of poetry works to catch the richness of what you were seeing!
When you told the stories in person, I knew that you were on the river when the tree fell. That's not obvious here. Maybe launch that section with you in the boat, on the river.
Same with the kangaroos. I have in mind from your storytelling that you were there completely alone, and it was a rich part of the story for me. First of all, you and scary herd; finally, you all alone with the old-timer.
Not sure about "suck hungrily", though it's a very powerful image. You lose your objectivity in that moment - you are interpreting something you can't see. (Can you??!)
In MY world, this has a place in your thesis :-)
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