Poem: The moon, the mountain, and I
Books & Poetry
In this week’s Poet’s Corner contribution, Leon van der Linde contemplates the beginning of everything.
The moon, the mountain, and I
Northern Tablelands, New South Wales
The red-yellow moon
slowly slides down
Mount Yarrowyck’s
slate-grey silhouette before
resting in Booralong Creek
shifting dusky shadows,
moving like wallabies,
over the rolling granite scrub.
The stillness of the early
dawn perfumed by deep
yellow wattle blossoms,
as I take in the textured light
and energy of it all.
The moon, the mountain, and I,
sharing unuttered thoughts
and unspoken words
about what may lie behind *
the crystal-white stars,
the wide dark expanse,
and further yonder.
How can one be solitary,
wondering about the
beginning of everything,
when sharing the company
and primeval wisdom
of a red-yellow moon
and a slate-grey mountain
early in the morning?
* Contributor’s note: ‘The Big Bang theory describes everything after the beginning of the universe. Before it, we’re a bit lost’. Paul M. Sutter, astrophysicist research professor at Stony Brook University New York State, and guest researcher at the Flatiron Institute in New York City.
Leon van der Linde was born in Zambia. After 10 years in Tasmania, he now lives with his family on a small farm near the rural locality of Yarrowyck on the western slopes of the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales. ‘Yallaroo is a jewel and I have found home…’ With a PhD in psychology from Western Sydney University, he works as a psychologist in nearby Armidale specialising in brief or time-limited dynamic psychotherapy, and is the author of the book ‘A New Drive-Relational-Neuroscience Synthesis for Psychoanalysis’, details of which can be found here.
Readers’ original and unpublished poems of up to 40 lines can be emailed, with postal address, to poetscorner@solsticemedia.com.au. Submissions should be in the body of the email, not as attachments. A poetry book will be awarded to each accepted contributor.
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