Emic Images
SKIES OF TIME
Through the sky of time
Bunjil flies
from clouds of darkness Bunjil cries
tears reflected in still waters of Budj Bim
Past hidden in a rolling mist of lies
within which our emergent-young
fulgent-face of future
emanation of expectance
refracted in our children’s eyes
Such-like Spring
in the vernal equinox of expectation
our future lies
in clouds of darkness
our humanity dies
In the clarity of hope
a fallen tear dries
as into the sky of time
Bunjil flies
White clouds lap at jagged peaks
reach snow covered valleys
lit by sunlight,
glare of white veins
push down, ever down, pulled forth
the inevitability of gravity
endless walk to the sea
my plane a living being
an Avatar
finds its home (the land of its birth)
descends into this northern land
a glacial world I have never known
a land enveloped by clouds
below which, a sparkling sea
through the narrows
into the fiords, toward the ice floe
immense frozen sheets persistent, creep
leave man behind
lost in fogs misty haze
THE AVATAR
a glacier, a force
a living thing from a primordial past
pulses, moves, in motion
through cold waters of our imagination
gestates our thoughts
before us, to calves they give birth
monstrous floes that drift away
a powerful surge, a wash of life
ethereal forms in shades of blue
set free in an ethereal world
float away from the darkness
that primordial age, an age of pre-life
into the coloured light of day
– these thoughts of man
Flying into the township of Juneau, Alaska, then by boat through the Tracy Arm fjord amid icebergs floating away from the face of an enormous blue glacier.
THE VISIT
Selected to be published in ‘Burrow’ magazine
“ We are delighted to be able to publish ‘The Visit’. This is such dramatic & richly evocative hymn of praise to a moment of wild encounter. We love it! “
Jillian & Phillip Hall
Beneath
the silver waves
of a Damascus steel sea
shapes
subtle movement
across sand, whorls, loops
blueprint of that above
forms
of the gloaming
morph into distinctness
two black rays
graceful
dancers of the unconscious
wings
undulate
to stop, look
distilled awareness
greets a mind now still
bridge the gap between
known and unknown
synergy between
opposites
pause
a presence
seek to permeate
boundaries of perception
aura
of clairsentience
transient connection
with nature
expose emotions
guidance
belief
in self
absorbs
the present
into silver waves
of a Damascus steel sea
by David Jones
WITHIN THE BORA RING
This suite of poems was written during the Laura Dance festival, a coming together of Aboriginal tribal groups of the Cape York Peninsula, 2021.
Threshold
Overhead, red-tailed black cockatoos call
dry leaves rattle in branches
ancient trees sway
in harmony
to movement of a pointless breeze
little respite from sullen heat
legacy of parched earth
the brow of a sandstone escarpment
offers its frown of concern
painted effigies gaze upon my trespass
conflict of warning and welcome
the Quinken
a panoply of beliefs and understanding
reach from shadows
of light and time
trappings of modernity disappear
camper-vans, tents, nikon lenses
behind a translucent sphere
I gaze into the hemisphere of time encapsulated
perceive at its base, ripples, vibrations
resonance of a didgeridoo
through the earth
my feet, my body
my being
percolates in my mind
a concentration of ‘the before’
essence of man
drawn from the hidden hemisphere
below turbulent sea that divides
whirlpool of mankind and time
tip of an inverted vortex
a holy place
the ring
a congress within a concentric of circles
germinates the gamete of thought
pulse in veins
painted people
white, red, yellow
ochre from the earth
people bowered by exclusion
atmosphere of dervish intensity
amplifies affinity with nature
from beneath rising dust
absorb wisdom
relevance
osmosis
between subconscious
and conscious
penetrate
the permeable membrane
the dreaming
above
the cockatoo flies
red tail bright against its blackness
at this time, in this place
a harbinger of change
of awakening
erudition
a foetal moment
transmutation of being
draws from meridians of knowledge
hallowed intersect of song-lines
this Bora-Ring
portal
to
I
by David Jones
Everywhen
in the shadow of an intra-cratonic rift
raised sandstone ridges
bleachers of time
observe
the basin
in which we stand
(me)
i
beneath trees
surrounded by cliffs
wrought of tectonic movement
eyes closed, i feel the snake
hear its hiss
within the circle
within the resonance
bare feet pound the earth
cross a flat plane
pulses echo
propagation of sound
into the hidden hemisphere
until reflected
to amplify
as dust
rises, shrouds the present
clouds of myth to shelter the mind
a nexus between known and unknown
surface tension upon which we gently tread
within mist of the fourth dimension
within the collective imagination
to become the axis mundi
emergent cosmic order
i look into the opacity
seek the serpent
its coils curl
leave
the font
i enter
‘everywhen’
enter the dreaming
connect heaven and earth
intersect sky and land
within the water
the creator
the created
from reality to dream
i roam time as an amalgam
past, present and future
to shift from dream
back to reality
revived
we, the observers
are in elliptical orbit
balanced between our forward motion
and the pull of gravity from an ethereal essence
from aphelion we attain perihelion
to enter the circle
to understand
to enter
“dreaming”
by David Jones
The Transmutation
From Africa’s fallen graben
the great rift valley
man looks east
into the light
life
this circle of boundaries
delineation of ‘us’ and ‘them’
those within the ring
those without
daub ochre upon white skin
drawn by magnetism of ‘us’
seek planetary myth
we, ‘the them’
from the void of ‘others’
absorb ethos of simplicity
acquire new relevance
realize nature
become
‘us’
by David Jones
..”Aboriginal Spirituality derives from a philosophy that establishes the wholistic notion of the interconnectedness of the elements of the earth and the universe,.
animate and inanimate, whereby people, the plants and animals, landforms and celestial bodies are interrelated.”
Professor Victoria Grieves