I Can Fly

High on the ragged, rocky outcrop a mother eagle snuggled close to her little egret having recently returned to their eerie after spending hours flying about searching for food. As always her baby was delighted to see her and hungrily tucked into the treats she had brought him. When the food was all finished he asks his mother:

“When can I fly

Out there in the sky,

When can I fly like you?"

"Oh! Bye the bye,

She replied with a rather tired sigh,

But first there are things to see to.”

"But I‘ve flapped my wings,

And done all those things

You said I needed to do.

So when can I try?

I so want to fly

Out there in the sky with you."

Many weeks passed them by,

He was impatient to try

All his tricks; he had learned quite a few.

With his wings growing longer,

And daily much stronger,

His skills he constantly hewed.

It was time to fly high

All alone in the sky,

His moment of truth; he knew.

"Don't stray, stay close by,

Where I can see with my eye:

Just be sure you stay in my view."

He flew up and down,

But before long he found,

That flying was tiring: That’s true.

The weeks quickly passed,

His skills fine-tuned at last:

It’s time to fly to places anew.

"Oh! Mother, dear mother,

Good-bye darling mother,

I’ll remember it all, that I will:

 As I fly through the sky

On the thermals up high,

In my heart you’ll be there with each thrill.

‘Till the day that I die,

Each time that I fly,

I’ll remember who taught me the skill."

2009

             

          Faraglione, Capri, 1998  

Australia, My Homeland

Island continent: Ancient southern land

Under the Southern Cross—its own celestial guide.

When discovered by Europeans recorded as Terra Nullius;

Fifty thousand years of Aboriginal ownership and pride.

Unnoticed civilization: History predating any other.

Here no need for a Merlin or King Arthur.

Aboriginal dreamtime: Rainbow Serpent:

Red Centre its Spirit:  Uluru its Heart.

Flora and Fauna unique to these islands:

Fossils left over from that great land Gondwana:

The edge of Eromanga the once inland sea

Home to the world’s only known dinosaur stampede.

Children’s footprints covered by eons of sand;

Found near Lake Mungo deep in the south of the land.

Carvings, paintings—on rocks and in canyons

All these and history prove claim to this land.

Oral history passed down through appointed custodians:

Stories of creation; living with all nature had endowed them.

Generations of history, unique treasury of knowledge;

Nomad Aborigines; hunter gatherers, managing their land.

Continuous civilization unrivalled on Earth—

More than two hundred years now since white invasion;

So little understood, much still to discover, understand, learn.

Together we can unravel our history—our treasured inheritance.

2012

From the top:  

Daintree Tropical Rainforest, Far North Queensland;  

Snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef, Far North Queensland;

All that lives on the Nullarbor Plain, Central South Australia;

Kauri Forest, Pemberton Southern West Australia

Iron E in Poetry

         Goodness me last Tuesday at three

As I was reading my poetry

An Iron E fell on my knee—

It dropped down out of the poet-tree.

How could it be I did not see

The Iron E up in the tree

Until it fell onto my knee

Last Tuesday afternoon at three?

Furthermore, today at four

I met a 4 carrying a saw,

Just outside of my front door.

Perhaps it wants to start a war!

Next I saw a fox hide in a box.

Of course it is no paradox

To see a fox hide in a box:

But this smart fox was wearing socks.

I wonder whether the verb 2 B

Would know me from a simile?

If it saw us in a poet-tree

Perhaps it would think it IRONY?

2012