SPRING STARS
One
of the unusual aspects of living on the land in the far north coast
of NSW is the appearance of fireflies in early spring. They come
around dusk and dart in and out of the vegetation with an almost
fairy-like magic. I also wrote another poem on this subject for
younger readers called Firefly that was published in the NSW
School Magazine. The photo is not from here though it gives a general
impression of what they are like although usually they are not quite
as numerous as in this picture. The last stanzas refer to the fact
that this display is for breeding and hence increase of life.
SPRING
STARS
Georgica NSW
September
dusk drifts over fields,
green
valleys, forests and long hills
and
lays, like mist, upon the scene
a
dreaming tenebrosity.
The
sheen that was slips back to last
west-fading
blue of skyward sight
and
coolness and the call of dark
speak
with the syllables of night.
Though
land is losing all of light,
upon
the south-west, paling sky
new
crescent rides as lunar smile
with
Venus high: white-gleaming eye.
While
from fast darkening, near this,
as
stars both Mars and Saturn shine-
all
jewels lit with radiance
reflected
from a vanished sun.
From
world beneath, still shadowing,
wild
drumming of cicadas crowds
the
air to drown my ears with sound-
last
chorus veiled from hunting wings.
In
vagueness, from my seeing’s verge,
a
sudden flash sparks, low then high,
around
dark trees and weeds and bushes,
long
grass and dim-white crofton flowers…
and
there another, and there- and there-
all
through the gloom of cooling air,
I
see the drifting stars go by-
the
green-gold gleam of fireflies.
Like
shifting constellations through
the
ever-growing dark they pass-
light
signs to breed in spring’s increase
that
rising life may never cease.
So
weary from my winter time
I
view enchanting shimmering
and
feel again this magic rhyme
that
sings to me from stars of spring.
No comments:
Post a Comment