LATE AFTERNOON STREAM
In Australia most
streams smaller than a river are called a creek. This poem is about a
creek in the late
afternoon with imagery mixed in with a little philosophy. The metre
is dactylic that is stressed, unstressed, unstressed (x / /
Lightly, late sunlight
is glittering bright)
with a
stressed or stressed, unstressed syllables at the end for the
rhymes. This metre (waltz rhythm) has something of a flowing quality
but is rather tricky to create in English which tends towards the
iambic metre (unstressed, stressed, / x).
The Eastern Water Dragon ( Intellagama
lesueurii lesueurii ) is
a fairly large (up to slightly more than a metre) but shy lizard
with strong legs and claws that hangs around water and dives into it
to escape if disturbed.
LATE
AFTERNOON STREAM
Lightly,
late sunlight is glittering bright,
Goldening
glistenings on the small stream;
Lightly as light, even lighter than light
Breeze
that is brushing the ripples that gleam.
From
the light sky, from high clouds that bright sun
Called
into being, the free raindrops flow-
Seeping
from hillsides they finally come
Down
to the path of the valley below;
Down
to one path that is always the low;
Following
gravity's down-given course,
Yielding
to overcome; letting them flow
Onward
and onward, without using force.
Silky
oak leaf-cluster patterns are bold,
Lit
by the lowering shafts of day's beams;
Slow-rustling
gum trees shimmer white gold,
Gleaming
with sun on their foresting greens.
What
is a stream but the flowing- the growing
Form
of the flowing forever ongoing,
Leaving
its legacy shaping the ground,
Like
a slow, snaking shape oceanward-bound?
What
is its shimmering beauty but glowing?
Mirroring
heaven-set heart of the light?
Water
takes coursing without any forcing,
Gathering
shining in passing my sight.
Small
water dragon swift-slides with a slither
Into
the water's concealing, safe flowing;
While
a black wood duck slow-glides with a shimmer,
Rippled
in vee shapes that follow her going.
Standing
in silence now, in the late light,
Watching
in silence the green and gold sight,
Dappling
of shadow and shine on the scene,
Gurgle
and trilling and gush of the stream,
I
am hearing its music; soft sounds' imbrication;
I
am seeing its intricate dancing of light:
Sight
of a moving through stillness and quiet,
Sound
of a flowing through silent creation.
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