Mark Scrivener Poetry Blog No 27 Rainforest Walk

RAINFOREST WALK

Many people are surprised to learn that Australia has rainforests on the tropical and sub-tropical regions of its eastern coast. To quote from the site - www.australia.com: The Gondwana Rainforests of Australia spill across 50 separate parks in northern New South Wales and south-east Queensland. Accessible from Byron Bay, this vast World Heritage-listed area embraces the world’s largest subtropical rainforest, along with warm and cool temperate rainforest types.

These remaining parks and areas have a remarkable richness of life and quite literally create their own atmosphere, 


 

 

              RAINFOREST WALK

                  Terania Creek

Like a sudden passing

through an unseen border,

entering the shadow of the forest is.

Like a sudden diving

beneath the surface of the sea,

unexpectedly

the bright light of the day has gone

and it is cool and less illumined.

The sun just glances through a topmost green

and filtering through

its pale light seems to grow green too-

for here trees tower to the sky

and spread new leaves like roofs on high.

Beneath our feet there is no grass,

the forest floor

is fully spread with brown leaf mold;

the moistness of the air

mixes with its mustiness,

distilling a living ambience

of venerable timelessness.

Here growth is crowding all the room:

palm stems stand straight on every side,

and ferns uncoil huge, spiralled leaves,

and moss has crept upon each stone

within this cool, damp wood of dusk-soft gloom.

Smooth trunks of giant fig trees

branch somewhere in invisible heights.

Roots burrow through the watered earth,

and silence resonates softly to

the "oom.....oom" of white-headed pigeons.

We follow red markers on stems and branches

which guide us up beside the busy stream,

till, scrambling over the last, few boulders,

we suddenly find the day again.

For there the canopy is broken

above a rock pool's rippling circle;

cathedral-like, a basalt cliff

soars, massive for a hundred feet;

and down this break a cool wind blows,

and from its top cold water flows

and leaps to fall, to veil the rock,

in dizzying and downward streams,

and mist the air and catch the wind

and spread fine moisture all around.

And I was glad to have the privilege of life:

to be and see cascading, holy water

in the altar by the mountainside.