Yesterday I went a little further afield than usual on my (theoretically) regular walk. We have two lakes within walking distance to the hermitage, and it was to one of these I ventured yesterday. I say further afield because I did in fact end up walking further than I’d planned..

The lake is called Budgewoi, and is really more a huge lagoon and part of a system called Tuggerah Lakes. I walked along part of the lakeside path and it was a lovely, quiet, and peaceful outing.

The foreshore has been covered in grass and other landscaping, but there are clumps (I call them groves, but not sure if that’s the right name or not. Groves does sound a lot better than ‘clumps’ though) of trees dotted along the way. Some of these standing ones appear to be old indeed.

Many of these groves line the shore and many attracted my attention and my camera’s eye. The poem I share today speaks of an encounter with a small grove of three. Small grove, but large and ancient trees.

Initially, I paused at these trees because the composition of the scene caught my eye, and my heart soon followed as I reflected, and listened to these old neighbours.

Please accept my small sharing of this effort to put down in words my experience there.

Namaste

OLD NEIGHBOURS

Were the words spoken?
Certainly they were heard
by one with, sometimes, the ears to hear.

Roots running deep, nourished by ancient Life;
branches reaching to the gods of the sky.
‘We been neighbours long time’.
As of one voice, or so I heard, these three standing ones,
sharing a lakeside home place
besides which I paused, in golden light.

Old neighbours – together lived and together shared
the times of plenty,
and the times of trial;
endured the inundation of the waters,
and the years when the waters withdrew,
and all that came between.

Witness to the comings and goings
of the winged ones;
of the four legged;
of the two legged,
these standing ones
– these tree people –
have stood resolute. Prevailing always.

My pausing is but a fleeting thing
spent reflecting in their shade and space.
Yet a moment of pause
can have no measure.
Not for neighbours
and their two legged friends.