Collecting

Early dawn walk,

The moon rising

Ahead of the sun,

Just,

Her slivered horns

Slipping between clouds

Collecting.

Ideas and images and

Well-worn notions like

So many curious

Pebbles or shells or

Fragant earthen gumnuts to

String together into these

Little refrains, these

Wandering lines that

Would

Create a world.

The world out is

More beautiful than

Anything created by pen,

And yet I persist

Perhaps to capture a

Spark for a bleak and

Lonely night

To be blown back

Into flame that

Might

Keep us warm.

Perhaps it's so much vanity

A belief these

Notions worth

Preserving in

Aliveness, a

Preservation through

Life through living.

As the sun makes

Its preparation to

Rise, the bush rustling

Birds muttering

Big eucalypt air

Sinking in the

Warm and cool of

Spirits alongside,

Whispering, waiting

For me to hear.

And so I walk,

Conduit for the

Voices perhaps silent,

Perhaps unwilling to

Speak until they

Receive attentive harvest.

And then

(And then)

And then they

Burst alight.