New Year Archives - colleen keating

Welcome 2023

THOMAS AND ELEANOR OVERLOOKING THE QUIET STILL BEACH OF ST IVES.

LOOKING FORWARD TOGETHER.

by Mary Oliver

Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous

to be understood.

How grass can be nourishing in the

mouths of the lambs.

How rivers and stones are forever

in allegiance with gravity

while we ourselves dream of rising.

How two hands touch and the bonds will

never be broken.

How people come, from delight or the

scars of damage,

to the comfort of a poem.

Let me keep my distance, always, from those

who think they have the answers.

Let me keep company always with those who say

“Look!” and laugh in astonishment,

and bow their heads.

lets hope
the burst of colour and sound
scares off the old spirits
to welcome 2022

I think it will bring flowers
because I am planting them!

Dawn came with
chortle of magpies in the deodar
outside our bedroom window

morning greeted with
dawning light golden
atop the trees

the butcher birds shy ring
for them a greeting of another day
– for us a new year.

Our birds began arriving
doves lorikeets cockatoos
magpies and native minors.

It was a startling blue day.
An early walk as the heat was coming.
Coops Creek forest was shady and cool.

Michael pointed out – a natural sculpture –
a very old uprooted tree
rains and winds over the years

washing it clean like bone.
Then we saw sculpures everywhere
This could be our very own Sculpture Park

with stunning shapes
albeit of nature alone.
Trees, upturned roots, caves, fallen rocks
and plants all lend themselves

from some bigger than us
to the fragile, small, sometimes
hidden things, one needs to tiptoe
quietly not to miss

(Angophora Costata Sydney Red Gum or Smooth Bark Apple Gum)