Climate Change

 

Above, above, above, above, above

 

 

 

Sitting

 

Sitting under the sky – tabernacle.

Mid afternoon – the sunshine – a crow

calling. A moment – and – a moment.

Time a river. Distantly – an aeroplane –

the wind – each leaf – adjusted. Silence –

birth – and death – reborn. A train – from east

to west – disappearing. Calls of

birds. A canopy of leaves – blue and

white – the sky – shadows – traffic

heard – a barking dog – a similarity –

each hour. Today as yesterday.

In tune – reality – eternal – within.

Thunder – imaginary. Beneath –

I see the sky. Translucent – temporary.

 

 

Rain

 

Rain – pouring – ceaseless – pools of water

on our balcony – thunder – darkness.

Tabernacling inside – hearing

but not seeing – almost sixty – past

forgotten – future unknown – present –

another world – coming down. Outside –

my structure sodden – once – I slept

beneath its canopy – night – stars –

breeze – awake before the dawn.

The rocks – bearers of the sun – orange –

fawn – above the hills – a hint – light –

transcending – yellow on the leaves.

Before and after – mystery – between –

a silent radiance – that can be heard.

 

 

Sunshine

 

Sunshine – a whip bird – silence in

the clouds – our cat observes – dew –

like worlds – upon a leaf – microcosm –

in life simplicity – the universe –

within each thing – a jewel –

I see the sun – multiplied – existing

after rain – a galaxy – overhead –

a whiteness – leaves – with air – in tune –

blue – and blue – and blue – old Norse – derived –

three letters – the infinite – a window.

Trunks have roots to nourish them –  humanity –

inner rivers – openness – time –

flesh – becoming spirit – God – inclined.

 

 

The Surface

 

At half past twelve the wind appeared – gusts

rearranging fallen leaves – solidity tempered –

at five past two the rain began – short bursts –

silence – between – the distant clouds – illumed

by the sun – a butterfly – timelessness –

yesterday – the afternoon upon

the surface of a pool – blue and white –

I entered it – lap after lap – borne up –

I used to pray while swimming – motion helped –

seeing the light reflected – shadows – depth –

today – a difference – far off – the spirit –

floating – stroke by stroke – at dawn – the sun –

dusk – stars – spiralling – what is –

in duplicate – gold and frankincense.

 

 

Eternities

 

Winged branches

Clouds – white on blue

Morning – shadows

Destiny

Between the leaves

Oneness – strange – familiar

Bird calls – breeze

Earth – sky

Transfigured – yet – the same

Remembrance

Rivers – now – always

Asleep – stars

The bush – alive

Circling

 

 

Transfigured

 

Clouds possess a radiance – sun swept –

fragmentary – life departs – open sky –

my mother rang – another friend had died –

memories – at their summer house –

sonatas – Beethoven – daughter thought – strange –

Boxing Day – their family gathered – fresh –

a funeral now – blue – the wind – structures

on a mountain side – housing us –

exodus – a glory parts – humanity

alone – a ceiling – open to the rain –

stars – a residence – the limitless

in time – limited – a face transfigured –

two feasts – Pesach – Sukkot – evidenced

in this – the fullness of the moon.

 

 

The Rain

 

Two are one – each generation – multiplied –

a spider’s web – radial threads – from

the centre – outwards – spiral threads –

connecting them – in circles – examining

the structure of leaves – two give birth

to two – and then – to two – duality –

unity. Today – prayer for rain –

the cantor – white capped – pleads –

sorrowful – remembrance – clouds –

a life departs – a new life comes – beneath

the canopy – a wedding – and – a funeral –

a new year – remembering – the old –

go – look before the sea – nothing –

look again – a cloud – the wind – the rain.

 

 

Possibilities

 

Seeing – but not entering – thus

the Torah ends – two possibilities –

one of history – one of necessity –

each year – with dancing – God’s people

celebrate – the rain returns – a river

fresh and new – most stories have a

beginning and an end – not here – incomplete –

fragmentary – perhaps it’s like a wedding day –

promises made – each one in love –

a canopy of joy – all join the dance –

fulfilled – this is what the Lord says –

I remember the devotion of your youth –

how as a bride you loved me

and followed me through the wilderness

through a land not sown.

 

 

After Dark

 

After dark – my wife inside – our black

cat near – seeing a star – sitting in my

tabernacle – interiors – a candle –

the outside world – deep – profound –

exteriors – my neighbours fight – beyond –

a solitude – what is this life – my father

looks out – sees the passing planes – comments

on the boats returning – sunlit – in the

afternoon – each morning after waking –

he sits upon his bed – looking out

his window at the harbour – so near –

the heavenly realms – blessed with every

spiritual blessing – chosen before the

foundation of the world – in love.

 

 

Setting

 

Orange, orange, orange, orange, orange,

orange, orange, orange, orange, orange,

orange, orange, orange, orange, orange,

red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red,

red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red,

red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red,

violet, violet, violet, violet, violet, violet,

purple, purple, purple, purple, purple,

purple, purple, purple, purple, purple,

purple, purple, purple, purple, purple,

white, black, black, white, black, black, black,

black, white, black, black, white, black, white,

black, white, black, white, black, black, white,

black, white, white, black, black, white, black.

 

 

Humanity

 

The earth – old and mighty – hesitant –

humanity – lightening strikes – a tree

transformed – this – our influence –

a passing storm – ten thousand generations –

measureless – the years beyond – waves

inbreaking – a sea profound – and yet –

a hurricane – incarnate – anthropocene –

a consequence – transfiguration – perhaps –

untuned – humanity – the earth responds –

a martyr – unmeasured – limitless.

 

 

Portraits

 

Above the piano – portraits – bulbs –

a kingdom – near. A pilgrimage.

My Grandmother – weeping –

recognition – a commonality.

The birds – each singing – dawn

and dusk – a thousand years –

like yesterday – a song forever

new. A die is cast – identity

is found within – a face –

shining – infinite – a destiny.

 

 

Destiny

 

Touched by its immensity

we speak –

restored, a fluency, enthralled

 

 

Open Space

 

At ninety three a life is simplified.

Soon after dawn awake, a shower, a slow

walk up the drive – the paper fetched, a shave,

porridge, a cup of tea. He’s not alone –

a partnership of over sixty years –

in golden light she sits with him, transfigured.

Heidegger philosophised a clearing –

an open space within a forest – rigour

marked his thinking, no necessity

for proof, instead a discipline – from darkness

light, in hiddenness a radiance.

My fathers sees a cloudy sky – an ark

of dark divinity – all that is human

replicated in all that is inhuman.

 

 

Starlit

 

Star – yesterday today – and yet –

 

 

Beyond

 

Behind our house a curve of railway track,

beyond, a wooded landscape, rising steeply.

I crossed the tracks and wondered through the blackened

scrub, I found a path, and followed, keeping

to its twists and turns. The landscape changed,

misty grey then openness. A tiny

path emerged, departing from the main,

delicate, above, the tranquil sky,

I followed, soon a view of distant hills.

Why am I writing this? Beyond

our world is something more. Or this – infilled.

Reality. When lovers sense a fondness,

their individuality transformed, what is

becomes what will be, and will be what is.

 

For Jacob and Belinda, on their wedding day.

 

 

Virgin Annunciate

 

Crowned with gold

Her beauty seen

Hands folded

Eyes downcast

A moment of eternity –

The one who was and is

Incarnate

Within

 

 

secretly –

another

 

abloom

before the

spring

 

one by one

 

daybreak

within

 

a question –

a reply

 

fixed gaze

of an angel

 

arisen

 

darkness

light

 

on earth

as it is

heaven

 

spring

of living

water

 

a boy

born

 

the rise

and fall

of the sun

 

 

Disappearance

 

The sun appears each day –

wonderful – each night

the stars. Marvellous – this

 

Jeremiah 33:19-22

 

 

Little Ice Age

 

window

to another

world

 

winter

early

 

sea

now ice

 

waterways

roads

 

sleighs and sleds

joining

with skaters

 

classes

linked

 

sky

heavy with

snow

 

the Mute

of Kampen –

a witness

 

 

Henrick Avercamp (1585–1634), the Dutch artist, recorded these events in a series of paintings.

https://www.nga.gov/features/slideshows/the-little-ice-age.html#slide_1

 

 

Darkness

 

Darkness at midday, night in the morning –

darkness that can be felt – the ninth plague –

a new decade begins – the third of the twenty first century –

fire on the hills – an orange glow in the sky –

clouds – with darkness on the one side and light on the other –

spiralling – terror – mountain ranges – a phoenix

consumed – what of the life within them? The Lord

said to Moses, When you return to Egypt, see that

you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have

given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart

so that he will not let my people go. Our leaders – is

this their destiny? Ancient rites renewed each summer –

loss and rebirth – but this is something unexplained –

the finger of nature – a miracle – a glory in a dark cloud.

 

 

For Nina

 

Two hundred and eighty dawns

 

Without seeing

 

 

 

Red Sea

 

Red Sea –

before

and after

 

 

 

Haiku

 

years

westwards

we fly

 

universe’s

grain –

in bloom

 

approaching –

departing

 

maturity –

future

past

 

whispering

in our hearts –

sovereignty

 

here –

a crescent

moon

 

wide

sky – deep

night

 

silver –

beauty

contained

 

noon –

surface of

water

 

the sun comes

in – at the

end of the day

 

sure

footed –

life

 

openness –

infinity

 

timeless –

time

 

today –

yesterday

tomorrow

 

above and

below

the surface

 

wind moves –

material

and spiritual

 

ice

becomes

water

 

loss –

sinking

sun

 

fate and

providence – earth

and sky

 

silence

within

sound

 

the light

of morning –

felt and seen

 

sabbath –

time’s

singularity

 

peak –

joy

 

birth

of

light

 

birds sang

an echo

my father

 

see –

the horizon

 

courteous –

divinity

 

multicoloured –

the sky

 

interior –

the world

outside

 

set –

father mother

son

 

tyrant –

temporarily

eternal

 

departing

endlessly

departing

 

life’s

core

 

faceless

 

life –

sinking

 

a dot –

beautiful

 

two cries –

birth

and death

 

humanity –

reflected

 

continuing –

day

by day

 

the end –

unseen

 

the day of birth

the day of death

 

evolutionary –

the air

 

lullaby –

past and future

forgotten

 

complex –

simplicity

 

lake –

sky’s

earth

 

late –

a garden

blooms

 

wind –

incarnate

 

sculptured

beauty

 

still life –

afternoon

 

sun

transfiguring

 

silence –

before and

after

 

the birds

calling

as before

 

unjust

today

tomorrow

 

life

gives

 

a child

remembers

 

unseen

seen

unseen

 

seven

times seven –

liberty

 

mirrored

 

a forest

in

a garden

 

beholding

 

galaxy

giving

birth

 

daylight –

night has

passed

 

late

afternoon

 

home –

outside

inside

 

spring light

 

lovely –

love

 

uncertain

unity

 

tomorrow

yesterday

 

time –

ripples

 

above

before –

is

 

day ends –

is it begin

 

dusk

and

dawn

 

layers –

present to

past

 

interior –

the painter’s

hands

 

fragments

of yesterday and

tomorrow

 

water

breeze

 

father

daughter

harmony

 

shell –

the ocean

 

ecstatic

bodies

 

inexpressible

expressed

 

a moment

of

eternity

 

ripples

of light

 

light

birthing

light

 

birds’

home

 

lightening

threads

 

on earth

as

in heaven

 

filled with

divinity –

seamless robe

 

golden door

 

God revealed

 

humanity

 

eternity

light and

shadow

 

neighbour

visiting

 

beauty –

in nothingness

 

writing

in gold

 

breathing

 

natural

colours

 

dust

 

dust

and spirit

returns

 

a mystery

 

enthroned

 

ancestral

home

 

known

unknown

 

harmony

 

life

and

death

 

dawn

 

perfect

imperfection

 

falling –

in the

breeze

 

day –

and night

 

after rain

cicadas

bloom

 

journeys

end – others

begin

 

dawn –

another

day

 

silence

sound –

silence

 

life –

between two

silences

 

kookaburras

call – my father

entertains

 

water

calm

Christmas

 

blue sky

blue water

 

blue

water

sky

 

earth

 

beautiful –

far away

and near

 

white –

between

two blues

 

clouds

floating –

afternoon

 

waves

patterned –

wind

 

two –

one

 

music

appears –

and disappears

 

silently

you came

 

nowhere

everywhere

 

manifest –

the wind

 

children’s

children

 

now –

between

 

continues

life

 

reveille

 

just

begun

 

mapping –

life

 

wide

long – high

deep

 

the faceless –

seen

 

rain

descending

 

dew

ascending

 

black

reveals

 

tree –

beauty

fruit

 

sky

 

life

 

now –

and

then

 

life

on life

 

darkness

and dawn –

neighbours

 

eyes

attune –

future seen

 

mirrored –

future

seen

 

life

like a dream

 

sky

on water

rests

 

a mirror

the sea

 

we hear

the sound

of water

 

silent

return

 

waves

forever

new

 

under the sun –

a flower

 

wind

moves

the leaves

 

violin

orchards

 

life –

procedes

and recedes

 

a prelude

a postlude

 

tasting

 

friendship –

crystalline

 

light

meeting

light

 

like a tree

a man flourished

where he is

 

northwest

red knot

 

blue on blue

 

clouds

travelling

 

swimming

into shore

 

one

divisible

by infinity

 

light

emerges

from darkness

 

sea leaves

marks

on the sand

 

entering

 

silence

in a

waterfall

 

human

radiance

 

water –

towards

the east

 

sky

on water

rests

 

a mirror

the sea

 

waves –

forever

new

 

under the sun –

a flower

 

made of

earth

and sky

 

north south

east west

home

 

water

near

 

circling

home

 

midnight –

today

yesterday

 

night

circling

 

within –

night

 

shadows

 

night –

a shadow

 

the sun

sees

the horizon

 

sunlight

finds

each thing

 

time

in spirals

 

yesterday

today

tomorrow

 

skies –

blue

and starry