The first of 9 poems in the section of the Anthology A Call to Listen. This section is called The Smell of Parsley and focuses on poems that call on our senses. Enjoy. This is my favourite section.
The poem listen was inspired by a walk through the Tall Timbers Walk between Eastwood and West Ryde with my labrador Millie. She was a wonderful model reminding me to slow down and look and listen and smell the wonders of nature along the way. It began with the crunch of leaves under my feet and the crack and rustle of the tiny skinks out sunning rustling away from me as I crunched through the fallen leaves . The poem ends with an interesting, ambiguous yet cosmic line. Enjoy.
listen
bowed trees sleep
tresses crunch at their feet
hound of wind moans
rhyme with rustle tones
come closer
listen
snick on grass
wake of bird
seed on wing
leaf brush on air
crack and rustle of skink
in their leaf litter rush of hide-and-seek
cricket-croaks
fruitfly-drone
frog-plonk in pond
snap of seed-pod
kerplop of fruit and berry
and in the underworld
rub of beetle and ant
the only other sound
easy drift
of vesper leaves
settling
to a hush
this seasonal paradigm
whispers its arrival
no fuss
except it’s time