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
