Wisdom and knowledge gained ... Beside the Creek

A blog can take many forms. So can an interfaith organisation.  So to begin, the first post is in a reflective mood.  It is a poem from which this blog takes its title ... Beside The Creek.  The poem is by the great Australian poet, Judith Wright. Wright was in her lifetime a significant environmentalist.  From both her literary works and her environmental advocacy, we can see that she was a person who was immersed in the Australian landscape in all its variety and forms.  Beside The Creek is a reflective poem.  It is written in the first person and in a reflective tone.  The "I" of the poem writes from the perspective of having been on a journey in which wisdom was learned.  The "I" now has a more mature knowledge which means actions are now different because of the wisdom and knowledge gained.  May our reflections have similar results.

Beside the Creek

by Judith Wright 

Under the wavering water shine the stones,

rounded in ruby-colours and clouded white.

Once I walked barefoot into that cool

Never-ceasing flow. I gathered once

Pebbles and ripples, the skimming rounds of light,

And took them home.

Now I am no such fool,

no such blest and envied stupid child

as to believe those colours, that once dry

gathered dust on a top shelf, heavy and dull

as pages written, pages forgotten and filed.

Here on the bank I sit unmoving; I

know the ungathered alone stays beautiful

and the best poem is the poem I never wrote.

Or so I said, watching the summer through.

But oh – years, time, you hoarsen here a throat

that sang all day without suspecting you;

stiffen the hands that gathered rubies then,

and open now, to show this dubious stone.

The poem can be found in -

Judith Wright - Collected poems  1942-1970

(A & R Modern Poets)

1971