THE TIDES AND THE TURNS
© Brenda Joy, 2010
Winner, 2010 ‘Poets by the Sea’ – Serious Section and Overall, Harrington NSW.
To sounds of laughing jackass we can rise to greet the sea
where pines and melaleuca intertwine.
Majestic gums outstretch to skies where brahminies soar free
from land reserved for Nature to design.
The azure coastal landscape basking warmly in the sun,
can make the troubled world seem far away.
Its beauty capturing my heart entices everyone
to ride the tides and turns of Crowdy Bay.
Enfolded safe by shoreline’s curve, a close community
is pulsing to the ocean’s rhythmic sounds.
Embraced and cooled by breeze off-shore and nurtured by the sea,
serenity and harmony abounds.
Within the mangrove reaches where the swift-wing corm’rant dive
we fish for need like black-skinned man of old;
share space in dolphined waters where unspoken dreams survive
in tune with realms where miracles unfold.
The challenging perspective of Pacific’s wide expanse
will call to those who quest to journey out
beyond the calm, to seek the depths where space and scope entrance –
to sense the freedom coastal life’s about.
When windswept far from millpond shore, at whim of ocean’s force,
with hazy shapes in distance marking land,
the rising swell of surging seas pits strength to keep on course –
awareness comes that life’s in Nature’s hand.
Acacias and natives fold, then lorikeets will cease
their reverie to nectar of the trees
as natur’l shapes are silhouetted, bare in moonlight peace,
while curlew cries upon caressing breeze.
From dawn to dusk the ebb and flow enthrals me with its charm –
kaleidoscopic, ever-changing view.
The trauma of cyclonic force, tranquillity of calm –
the juxtaposing contrast of the two.
This coastal stretch we call our own where Nature reigns supreme
is part of our great country’s eastern shore.
Preserving what we have, together, we can share the dream
and keep it in our hearts forever more.
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