picnic

Last Days of February: one day at a time by Colleen Keating

colleen Bush walks, Poetry , , , , , ,

Life as we know it
changed this past week
yet the nankeen kestrel
hovered above us
just as before

 

 

Each day is beautiful and precious
even amidst these cloudy times
some days of heavy metallic sky
some days of grey straggling fog
with the horizon lost

nature tells us
it will turn for it has many sides
a stretched-out horizon
wider then our dreams
is still there

Today the clouds give us
feathers and angels and flying kites
all uplifting  light and full of joy

 

so different to the metaphoric clouds
that hang thickly over us
pounding at our hearts
fogging our minds
suffogating our bodies

 

lapping waves
our footprints disappear
we do not look back

 

Our second day 

 


out walking
nothing has changed
trees still stand as mystics
their whisperings
pointing the way

Some signpost along the way

 

And from the Sensory Gardens Just now

Eucalypt Tanka Journal Issue 31 ed. Julie Thorndyke

colleen Poetry , , , , , ,


Eucalypt Tanka Journal

 Issue 31

Amongst the bills, real estate adds, junk mail, other vague advertising letters
it was like a bright star in a dark sky to find the latest edition of Eucalypt Issue 31
beautifully edited and placement done with loving care by Julie Thorndyke. I dropped everything and the afternoon wiled away with a coffee enjoying the tanka and the world came wildly alive with my mind listening, observing, all senses stirred.

Eucalypt is the first Australian journal devoted to the ancient Japanese poetry genre
called tanka and I feel so proud to be included in Eucalypt Issue 31
with all the amazing Tanka writers.

I love my ladybug tanka. It is filled with colour, climate change,
endangered animals, picnis , sharing with grandchildren and nature

a ladybug

lands on our picnic blanket

blackdots on red

my grandson exclaims

I didn’t know they were real

My ladybug tanka speaks of climate change where our bugs and beetles
and especially the colourful Christmas beetles are disappearing.
Disappearance of vegetation, change in food chain etc the cause
. and how our children and our grandchildren are being deprived
of this natural beauty.

Secondly it speaks of sharing natures moments with the grandchildren
being out in the nature of the Blue Mountains lying on a picnic rug
and getting the opportunity of sharing  something which is becoming rare.

Thank you Julie Thorndyke for your dedication to writing, poetry, and tanka.