“I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things.” ~ Vincent van Gogh
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Sunday, January 14, 2018

My Name is Rosemary

"Never let anyone
shorten your name,"
said the Sage.
"You need Mary
for your strength."

And since then
I never have –
though, before that,
I liked Rose …
being a rose.

Mary. I ponder –
The Great Mother?
Or the sea?
(Rosemary means Rose
of the Sea.)

Mary the Mother
endured all things,
and was brave;
while the sea
is ancient, wild.

My namesake plant,
that resilient shrub,
has a fragrance
not sweet, but
faintly salt-tinged.

"Don’t," I say,
"call me Rose.
Friends call me
Rosemary." I smile,
and they comply.













Also shared at The Poetry of Three: three words per line on facebook.

In Fading Light

Cool evening, after
day's heavy heat.

I linger on
my top step,
for the breeze.

A faint rumble
might be thunder

or a car....


Linking to The Poetry of Three: three words per line on facebook

The Smell of Home


The smell of home is a gum-leaf, picked off the tree as I walk beneath, crushed between my fingers and held to my nose, deeply inhaled … then discarded. Plenty more where that came from!

















Summer Driving in Northern Rivers

There is nowhere to stop.
This photo is just for me, 
in the camera of my mind. 

Above the mountain range, 
banks of thick, frothy clouds
echo the mountain shapes. 

I round a bend. On the hill, 
a stand of Norfolk Pine 
rises black against the sky.

(Where are you? Where are you? 
I want you here beside me, to see –
though you wander free ... 
and in tunnels of my mind.)