Poetry Blog No 164 By the Highway

BY THE HIGHWAY

From time to time in life we experience heightened moments that are yet moments of peace where our inner vision of life seems to connect with the more archetypal and universal feelings and truths. One use of poetry I believe is to try to evoke something of such experiences when "the better self awakes in us" (Goethe). The following poem is about the feeling and sense of such a moment while taking a break from driving on the NSW tablelands. The lines are in iambics of varying length, mostly with rhymes.

BY THE HIGHWAY

While of a time long-travelling

the way through higher lands

I stop by gravel highway side

to stand on legs, relax my hands.

Above me now I'm noticing

how cloud wisps drift on, white and wide,

in thin and winter wind on high.

Dark trees on slight hills cluster on

the cold, blue edges of the sky,

remote from browning paddocks where

sparse grass is leaving patches bare.

Yet all the air

is cool and clean.

I'm taking in

clear distances of world

across the stillness of the scene

and for a moment know

a peace with where I am,

a peace with where I've been,

a peace with where I go.

The following version of the poem in German has been created by Franz Tieber of Vienna who has kindly given permission for it to be pasted on this blog. This is the first time I have ever had a poem translated and re-imagined in another language.

An der Landstraße

Auf Hochland während langer Fahrt
auf einem Kiesbankett -
auf Beinen stehn, und lockern noch
die Hände, macht Ermüdung wett.

Und Wolkensträhnen über mir,
die weit als weiße Fracht so ziehn
dem dünnen Winterwind voran.

An zarten Hügeln zeigt das Glüh´n
des Firmaments die Bäume dumpf,
fernab von kargen Matten leert
der Schwund den letzten Gräserherd.

Die Luft so kühl,
so gänzlich rein.
Ich grenze ein
mein Selbst nunmehr zur Welt,

da über dieser stillen Flur

ich augenblicklich seh,

was Frieden ist im Hier,
ein Frieden für das „War“
und einer für mein Ziel.