Lunar New Moon and a Bird Walk by Colleen Keating

Lunar New Moon

Just before first light we rose
the lunar  moon
was due

we watched  we waited
the hearth of a new day
burst firing the waves

the lunar moon
travelled into its tiger destiny
invisible

not even a whisper
or scintella of light
but one with the air

lunar moon
we search the darkness
on the horizon

light  dawn  sunrise
for a wild water tiger
i was surprised
by its gentle silent entry
like a dew drop on a rose
or the tear drop of blood
from the pierce of a thorn

60 years for its return
1962 the year I left
the cocoon of school
for the world
2022 is it the year I bow out
and return
to the cocoon of my world
in nature

lunar new year
the morning glory
are full of welcome

association
paperbark and purple
morning glory

Bird walk today

Can you see the two cormorants hanging out by the lake in the photo?

just hanging out
they know we are here
two pied cormorants

and

two cormorants
hanging out by the lake
social distancing

 

How many kookaburras
makes a coven
waiting for their prey

 

 

 

Easter Sunday 2020

Easter 2020

 

There is Alleluia in this morning in our heroes.
Easter is in them as they rise to bring, save, comfort, give life in our world.
From cleaners to the top scientists, from shop assistants to nurses and doctors those on the front line and first responders. May we all give them honour and gratitude .For us in our compassionate retreat we can only be grateful.

“Nature does not hurry yet everything is accomplished” . She has suffered painfully this summer . Now she has a little breather to find herself again.

Here is a dawn photo this morning from the terrace  in our time of self isolating which we are terming our compassionate retreat. The second photo a tree atching the Easter sunrise before we received it. Love the gold the first gift of morn.

Easter Morning 2020

Kookaburras wake us singing.
Dawn.
The sun is rising.
An amazing expanse of pink sky.
Magpies are warbling again in the nearby tree ( all summer in smoke-choked air they didn’t sing )
The moon in her silver shoon
journeys west in quiet stillness.
The birds are singing more than ever.

The sweet scent of the lemon balm Eucalypt
and the newly budgeoning buds of the sasanquas fill the air.
All our families are safe at home, some camping in their backyards, some doing Easter bunny hunts in their own gardens.
No hectic trips to church .
No frantic last minute shopping for celebratory functions.
No one has been in traffic jams.
No one is racing heither and thiether to keep important dates or to take the planned Easter holiday.
And not a plane in the sky.
The air is crisp and fresh.

Easter 2020
when we all stayed home
in compassionate retreat

Practiced physical distancing
Not social distancing for Facetime and Zoom are a miracle of social communication . It is physical distancing we face daily which of course for grandparents who love being with their grandchildren is extremely painful.
I am a poet in residence . Normally you would pay a fortune to have that experince .

Getting fresh air while self isolating and social distancing

 

Bush for us to walk in and experience a world away from the world

From our home over the highway which is taken by a overpass we walked down the road into a fragment of Australian bush  and Wahroonga Creek. So revitalising and refreshing in this world away from the world.There is still a lot of track we have to discover but today we just wandered along on the high track overlooking the creek and listening to the song of the water falling and running along as  a small creek.

 

Getting fresh air and exercise while self isolating

Social distancing and self isolation doesn’t mean sitting on the couch . It means being vigilant and very  carful of your discerning what steps to take to stay healthy physically and mentally  and for me this needs walking and finding spaces of veriditas that is green and moist and alive. and we have a few of those pockets of vitality walking distance from our home.

Normanhurst Park and Waitara Creek catchment today was vibrantly alive. The waterfall was singing and the place was alive . I will let the photos tell the story.