Where My Heart Lives
Written at Waldheim Cabins before a fourth Overland Track walk and a sixth climb to the Cradle Mountain–Barn Bluff ridge.
Poetry / archive
Poetry
Work written across childhood and youth, kept in sequence so the recurring weather, wilderness, grief, joy and longing remain visible.
- Poems
- 51
- Span
- 2002–2023
- Original art
- 43
- Order
- Newest first
Collection note
Twenty years of rambling
These poems were written across more than twenty years, and reading them back now, I am struck less by how much changed than by how often the same concerns kept returning. Weather, stars, wilderness, solitude, joy, grief, damage and longing all turn up again and again, sometimes years apart and in completely different forms.
The natural world sits through most of it, too. Rain, sea, birds, hills, wind and starlight were never just scenery to me, although I probably would not have been able to explain that particularly well when I was sixteen. Looking back now, I can see how often I was using them to think about scale, consequence, refuge, belonging and the sort of life I wanted to live.
That continuity is really what the curator’s note is about: what stayed, what changed, where some of it came from, and why I have kept this slightly unruly archive intact.
Read the full curator’s note →Archive
Chronology
2023
1 poem
2012
1 poem
Of Enchanted Woods and Singing Streams
Upon the slopes of the mountains high, As the shadow of giants draws nigh,
2011
1 poem
Unnamed
When the night is still and the stars are bright, And the world is quiet in the silver moonlight.
2010
5 poems
The whisper of the night
Life is beauty beyond compare, Filled with joy plenty, yet rare.
The Moon and the Scorpion
Quiet in the night is the rising tide, Flickering stars, behind wispy clouds, hide.
To a little wave
Little wave O’ little wave, far out at sea, Little wave O’ little wave, come unto me…
Dawn’s breeze
A silver blaze lights up the sky in the dawn, Throwing into stark contrast black rocks on the white;
Winter's winds
Rise o' winds of the Winter, cold, Whip through fall's red and gold...
2009
2 poems
2008
2 poems
Ripples
It starts with a little splash in the blue, A tear from heaven plunges into the mirror-mere,
Of Flaming Sparks and Sparkling Flames
A twig creaks, a stone strikes, Light glows bright as a spark leaps,
2007
5 poems
Deserted
Harsh and bright smote the noon sun's rays, As waves of hot air rose shimmering above the sands.
Of Childhood days....
Today at the threshold of twenty, As I watch the early Morning sun rise,
Musings on Life
The blushing sky turns light and bright, As the early morning sun peeks over the earth's rim.
Still, I am glad....
See the sun rise from mountains that rear so high, Rising fast he blazes down from the sky.
Of racing trains and silent hills.
Through the evening airs comes a train’s sound, Leaving echoes in the silent hills to resound.
2006
3 poems
The Winds of Change
Sunrays golden light up the eastern empyrean, Staining, blood red, the wrack of the clouds.
Thus begins a new day
I rise in the cool darkness of the morn, As twittering birds strike up their joyous refrain.
A Night in the Wild
Silver moonlight casts dappled shadows on the earth, Moonbeams, ethereal, light up a hoary vista,
2005
9 poems
Oft, anon have I dreamed
Oft anon have I dreamed, Of living in a world filled,
Katherine Mansfiled
For five and twenty years, she wrote; Each year’s work better than the last,
A Summer's Day.
The east turns golden in the bright dawn, As the sun rises on a summer’s morn.
The Quest.
Gazing o’er the green meads, Under a clear blue sky;
The Return to Yourself.
Under the clear starlit night sky, Pacing out of the undying west,
My Own little corner.
A keen wind whistles through the fen, Branches bend and sway in the breeze.
Leaves in the Wind.
The wind in the leaves on a golden dawn, Was cool and soft on a glittering lawn.
Lingering dreams...
A dream had I in the recent past, A dream recurring ever on.
The Song of the Sea
Screaming gulls wheeled overhead, Canopied under a cloudless sky.
2004
9 poems
Mist
Swirling vapour fills the sky, Pearly white and misty grey,
Hidden Paths
Walking o'er a grassy plain, On a fresh sunny spring's day,
The Road
The road goes on and on, Down from the gate where it began,
Bliss
I wake up on a cool morn, To find myself on green grass.
The Forest Lord
Wrapped deep in my thoughts was I, As I walked by the forest's edge.
The Call of the Wild
Standing under the night sky, A sky filled with glittering stars,
A mountain's advice.
"Great mountain wise and old, High and mighty dost thou stand.
The Battle of Life
Many years have flown by, Flown by since thy birth.
A winter's night
On a cold chilly winter's eve, I watch the sun set oe'r the forest's eaves.
2003
7 poems
A Year Goes By… A Year Comes By…
Sixteen years I have seen, Many sunsets I have watched,
A friend's plea.
Many years ago we may have met, Or it may have been a few years back.
Within Life – or Without…?
Wreathed in a cloudy cloak is the sky, Flaming red is the light in the smoky west,
Wandering streams.
Wandering alone in a wood, Saw I a silver stream,
Here lies a Good Man…
Here lies a Good Man, About whom little is known.
Of Cliffs and Clouds and Flickering Sun
Flaming gold was the morning sun, As she rose o’er the clouds in the east,
The Doom Of Man
The beauty of the rolling hills, The music of the falling rain,
2002
6 poems
Thank you my friend.
A long time ago we met, So it seems as I look back now.
The Lord of the Eagles
Oh! see the eagle how he soars. Far o'er the reach of mortal sight,
The Four winds.
I wake in the morning and feel the wind, The wind that blows fresh out of the North.
The Butterfly
Early in the morn, with the rising of the sun, The butterfly prepares for the work to be done,
A Rainy Day.
The beauty of a cloudy morn, The feel of the cool pleasant wind,
A Wish.
Oh! On a fine summer's eve, I wish I could leave,
