Wishes

Jamison Creek, Darwin's Walk, Wentworth Falls

Words to walk with:
From Wishes by Judith Wright
"What would I wish to be?
I wish to be wise.
From the swamps of fear and greed
free me and let me rise."

The forest path

Above: Tea trees, Darwin's Walk, Wentworth Falls
Below: Tea Tree flower

I am taking you on a Sunday stroll down the first part of Darwin's Walk. Charles Darwin visited Australia in 1836 during his Voyage of the Beagle and walked this track.

We are going to trace Darwin's steps with the words of Judith Wright an Australian poet to accompany us.

Words to Walk With:
From The Forest Path by Judith Wright
"When the path we followed began to tend downwards --
how it came about we hardly now remember --
we followed still, but we did not expect this,
the loss of self ..."

Duck's weather

Wentworth Falls Lake, late morning yesterday

Before we start on our next walk which was on a pleasantly warm sunny day I thought I should make mention of the current weather. It's raining, raining, raining. We've had grey days on and off ever since Christmas but for the past three days it's been pelting down. Up the mountain is completely enveloped in cloud.

February-March are our wettest months but every five or six years it really turns on the tap like now.

Words to walk with:
From Song for The Rainy Season by Elizabeth Bishop
"Hidden, oh hidden
in the high fog
the house we live in,
beneath the magnetic rock,
rain-, rainbow-ridden,
where blood-black
bromelias, lichens,
owls, and the lint
of the waterfalls cling,
familiar, unbidden.

In a dim age
of water
the brook sings loud
from a rib cage
of giant fern; vapor
climbs up the thick growth
effortlessly, turns back,
holding them both,
house and rock,
in a private cloud."

Grass

Farm, Megalong Valley

We leave the valley today.

Words to walk with:
By Emily Dickenson
The grass so little has to do,–
A sphere of simple green,
With only butterflies to brood,
And bees to entertain,

And stir all day to pretty tunes
The breezes fetch along,
And hold the sunshine in its lap
And bow to everything;

And thread the dews all night, like pearls,
And make itself so fine,–
A duchess were too common
For such a noticing.

And even when it dies, to pass
In odors so divine,
As lowly spices gone to sleep,
Or amulets of pine.

And then to dwell in sovereign barns,
And dream the days away,–
The grass so little has to do,
I wish I were the hay.

Wild as our hearts remain

Farm, Megalong Valley

Words to walk with:
The Last Continent by Les Murray
Where my great-grandfather's dray
Stopped, is a tractor field;
Roads for a thousand miles are sealed
The wild is burnt and fenced away.

Beasts who saw the day of men
Are hunted out, disowned, and killed;
Star cities that we learn to build
Rise on the inner mirage-plain.

Wild as our hearts remain
Earth is no more the wild.
Deeps of the ancient forest day

Are stilled to art, and memory.
High venture sings a rising tune.
The earth gives way to the world.

Bring your own wood

Camping area, Megalong Valley

Be a good citizen and don't go scavenging for sticks to light your campfire, the forest needs them to stay healthy.

Today Wood is the theme for City Daily Photographers. Click here to view thumbnails for all participants


Words to walk with:
Sleeping in the Forest by Mary Oliver
"I thought the earth remembered me,
she took me back so tenderly,
arranging her dark skirts, her pockets
full of lichens and seeds.
I slept as never before, a stone on the river bed,
nothing between me and the white fire of the stars
but my thoughts, and they floated light as moths
among the branches of the perfect trees.
All night I heard the small kingdoms
breathing around me, the insects,
and the birds who do their work in the darkness.
All night I rose and fell, as if in water,
grappling with a luminous doom. By morning
I had vanished at least a dozen times
into something better."

Blackbird

Seen near Megalong Valley tea room

One of my childhood books had black birds with scary claws like that.

Words to walk with:
Sing a song of sixpence a pocket full of rye,
Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie.
When the pie was opened the birds began to sing,
Oh wasn't that a dainty dish to set before the king?
The king was in his counting house counting out his money,
The queen was in the parlour eating bread and honey
The maid was in the garden hanging out the clothes,
When down came a blackbird and pecked off her nose!

Tree

Tree, Megalong Valley

Words to walk with:
William Blake, 1799, The Letters
"The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a
green thing that stands in the way. Some see Nature all ridicule and
deformity, and some scarce see Nature at all. But to the eyes of the
man of imagination, Nature is Imagination itself."

A letter to my Aunt

Letterbox, Megalong Valley

Words to walk with:
From A Letter To My Aunt Discussing The Correct Approach To Modern Poetry by Dylan Thomas
Do not forget that 'limpet' rhymes
With 'strumpet' in these troubled times,
And commas are the worst of crimes;
Few understand the works of Cummings,
And few James Joyce's mental slummings,
And few young Auden's coded chatter;
But then it is the few that matter.
Never be lucid, never state,
If you would be regarded great,
The simplest thought or sentiment,
(For thought, we know, is decadent);
Never omit such vital words
As belly, genitals and ——-,
For these are things that play a part
(And what a part) in all good art.
Remember this: each rose is wormy,
And every lovely woman's germy;
Remember this: that love depends
On how the Gallic letter bends;
Remember, too, that life is hell
And even heaven has a smell
Of putrefying angels who
Make deadly whoopee in the blue.
These things remembered, what can stop
A poet going to the top?

By the road

Roadside Farm, Megalong Valley

Words to walk with:
From Roads by Amy Lowell
O Winding roads that I know so well,
Every twist and turn, every hollow and hill!
They are set in my heart to a pulsing tune
Gay as a honey-bee humming in June.
‘T is the rhythmic beat of a horse’s feet
And the pattering paws of a sheep-dog bitch;
‘T is the creaking trees, and the singing breeze,
And the rustle of leaves in the road-side ditch ...

By the softly ringing hoofs of a horse
And the panting breath of the dogs I love.
The pageant of Autumn follows its course
And the blue sky of Autumn laughs above.