Conversations Under Grandmother Tree

Conversations Under Grandmother Tree

I always call big old trees with spreading arms Grandmother.... and big old tall ones Grandfather... silly me, really but it stems from a day, nearly 40 yrs ago now, when I sat under a tree with an indigenous girl, whose name has faded from memory ; she told me stories of her people, Dreamtime Stories handed down from generation to generation. I may have forgotten her name but I shall never forget her. I fished for barramundi (a fish) and ate witchedy grubs with her and watched the slow moving river grumble along past our feet...

‘Neath Grandmother Tree




forty year old
memories
drift
floating
into present day
smiling
innocent
memories
two girls
bond in play…
fishing for barramundi
by a slow moving
river
that grumbled past their feet
searching under thick bark
witchedy grubs to eat…
a tale of ebony and ivory
long before the song
was sung
two girls
playing in the bush
their souls
were as one…
teaching each other
of two worlds
the worlds of
me and she
sitting ‘neath
the cooling shade
of old Grandmother tree…
Sharonlee©
12-Jul-11



White-Girl-Who-Not-White


the day was hot & humid
summer storms
building in layers
of heavy cloud
pregnant with unfallen rain…

rain today
I asked
wiping sweat
from my nut-brown face…

nope, ‘morrow maybe
she replied
her yawn exposing
teeth of purest white
in a face as black as night
you not like dem
white girls in town
she said
dem ones read Dolly
at milk-bar
and paint their nails
and giggle like sick
kookaburra…

you not like them
aborigine girls in town
I grinned
they copy white girls
and giggle at the jackaroos
and flutter eyes like
sick cow…

our laughter tumbled
up into the branches
of Grandmother Tree
who rustled her leaves
at our gossip
with good-natured
disapproval….

you think any quandong
are ripe
I asked

nope, we ete ‘em all
yesterday….
she shook her head
you still got much
to learn
white-girl-who-not-white
she laughed…

we both laughed then
out loud like
healthy kookaburra
SWIM!
we screeched
chasing each other
into the slow moving
water of
the River….
sharonlee©
14-Jul-11



jackaroos - Male trainee worker on a cattle or sheep station


quandong- Australian tree with edible flesh and edible nutlike seed






******************************************************************************
Lullaby Lyrics

perfection
in scattered shades
of filigree jade…
shadows overlaid
with late afternoon
sunshine that stills time…
creating intrinsic
patterns
in branches
and leaves
rustling
soft melodies
within the stanza
of a faintly stirring breeze
lullaby lyrics whisper softly
of seasons past
and seasons yet to come
as I sit ‘neath
this grandmother tree
to await
the setting sun…
sharonlee©
11-Jul-11

Trailing Tangents & Delusions of Nirvana - A Ramble

Trailing Tangents & Delusions of Nirvana - A Ramble

I have been besieged

 by ‘life-thoughts’ lately…

What am I doing?

Where am I going?

 Who am I?

Who do I want to be?

 What is the purpose of this life?

Can I love again?

Is it ok to finally live without pain?

… the sort of thoughts

 that lead one to epiphanies door

but withholds the key….

I answer each probing question

as honestly as I can…

I am living

Wherever life takes me

I am me… Me

A healing blessing to all I meet

purpose? hmmmm

to live life with authenticity

yes… yes…and yes….

but those are cryptic answers –

- am I more confused now

then I was at 22? 32? 16?

perhaps… but I know more now

feel more now…

… understand more…

I think the best thing one can do

for oneself

is to just let it all go….

… the preconceived ideas

the pain… sorrow…soul-sapping ache

the bruises that mar ones spirit…

let it all go….

so, I may not be loved by a partner

not know that warm & tender certainty

when I gaze into eyes that gaze at me…

… but I have known it

and  I have learn’t to love myself

…my friends love me

(and I love them)

and that is more than some

realise they have….

I will not bring comfort & solace

strength & peace

to this world

but I love all

unconditionally

without agenda

or thought to race creed religion gender

sub-culture political preference football/soccer team….

or any of the predetermined prejudices

instilled into each generation…

I think somewhere along the way

many eons ago

the evolving human race

came to a crossroad

and ventured down the wrong path…

…we are children of the Earth

and as such have become

clouded by issues of status

materialism

philistinism…

we react to artificial stimuli

and respond in kind….

our freedom and independence

is buried under a paper-pile mountain

of ordinances regulations rules

sanctions that do not safeguard the everyday man woman & child

but rather protect those selfsame

law makers who dine with law-twisters

defend their right to kickbacks & pay rises

gazillion dollar deals

that jeopardize

  the ethical & spiritual fabric

of all humanity….

…perhaps at some point in the future

enough people will rise as one

and lift their voice

to blind bureaucrats in ivy covered ivory towers

the offspring of today’s Pontius Pilates…

… but that day will not come

if we of the now

put down our pens

silence our voices

and close our hearts

simply because

it feels too hard

because we a tired

… we are jaded…

I believe

that  the power to change

is in our hands…

… we could be the catalyst

that creates a shift in spiritual awareness

the founding stone

for a new future…

if we have the courage

to share & sing & educate…

the courage to reach out

with love & conviction

…and if we are not a whisper

of future strength & unity

at least we know

we lived life well;

Sharonlee©

15/11/11

Epiphanies Fall like Tears

Written & Spoken by Sharonlee
 all photos by Sharonlee

Simple Blessings

Simple Blessings

sunlight played across my skin

in lacy layers

of warmth & light…

… a strange peacefulness

fell in hushed & muffled tones…

traffic midway from there to where

muted by wind whispers

through coconut fronds…

… the chatter of parrots

a tumultuous symphony…

no one stirred

or walked the scuffed paths –

- a simple blessing

caught as I was

in animations

of communal living…

a surreal unreality

infused the afternoon

as if all signs

of human interaction

had frozen in time…

…. granting me a moment

that was purely mine….

Sharonlee ©

2-Nov-11

Shades of Dreams & Destiny’s Design

Shades of Dreams & Destiny’s Design

I don’t know what my dreams are anymore

trampled by so many on life’s dusty floor;

visions once danced in my heart

pastel-hued transparencies

of what may be

rippled

rippled

rippled

on the mirror of my soul

liquid hopes that flowed

like mercurial waters

kiss bare ankles….

… but rose no further;

reverberations

echoed

across the surrealistic canvas

of my dreams

destiny dyed rainbow-shades into one….

shadows cast images into a dark intermission

even time abandoned me

to reruns that never end;

jasmine scented breezes

died in silent sighs

stale incense

spreads

over smoky dreams

now dancing in dust-motes

with faded crystal shards…..

I don’t know what my dreams are anymore

trampled by so many on life’s dusty floor;

sharonlee©

Fractured Clarity

Fractured Clarity

gazing

through the weekend window

scenery blurred in shadowed haze

society’s harsh edges

faded to grey…

I saw mirrors....

mirrors upon mirrors...

suspended before my eyes...

each revealing a different image....

images that blurred

and changed before my startled cries....

my eyes brim with tears

and carry in them

 a melancholy that is unfathomable....

I find myself

hurtling

chaotically

down a labyrinthine tunnel

of veiled complexities…

entering the twilight zone

of my existence

a realm of deep profundity

I have never dared

to probe…

thoughts profound

in their simplicity

chant a primal mantra

too intense for my soul

to grasp….

debilitating reasoning

encumbers free thought

as all prior knowledge

disintegrates

into meaningless

echoes

under the onslaught

of such philosophical abstrusity …

I hear the very universe

hold its breath

willing me to seize

a shard of fractured clarity

almost daring me to run with it

to the end of time…

but clarity drifts

in obscure whispers

forever

beyond my perception

a profound premise

forever beyond

my mind…..

sharonlee©

3/9/2011

 9:50 PM

Iridescent Dream-Visions

Iridescent Dream-Visions

What was it woke me

in the wee hours of the dark

when lost souls walk gloom’s

formless silhouette

was it dream or pastlife or

some vague and half-forgotten memory

of a long-forgotten day

dredged up from mind’s shadow…

what manner these visions that

had no reason or rhyme…

I seemed to recall I felt

…vaporous… colorless… naked…in a thorny glade

where sleepy birds made no call…

where the night-wind murmured secrets

 in a whispered sigh

while a full moon hung

beclouded in the heavens,

mists that swirled on dampened earth

had me lost before I was found

down foggy passages I ran

overgrown with amputated limbs

skeletal arms… reaching… clutching… grasping

I came upon a pool of icy light

where cerulean-blue water

held iridescent fish, eyes blinking with untold wisdom

who waved with wet and glistening fin

for me to shed my clothes

and join them  in their watery prison…

I hesitated…

but the fish’s smile seemed welcoming

and their faces seemed well-known

as if they were old friends

lost in the brittle dust of pasts unremembered …

I stepped into water

that was as frigid as a glacial pond

felt overcome by a numbing sleepiness

a lullaby voice in siren song echoed…echoed…re-echoed…

I slipped into the waters cold embrace

and sank like a falling stone

and when I opened my weary water-logged eyes

I found dubious company…

the iridescent fish swam with me

and other beings to hazy to comprehend

creatures I had never seen

or never knew I knew…

and still they seemed vaguely familiar

I felt I should have known

as I sank for what seemed a long, long time

falling into the forever of distant

and long-forgotten past

I thought I would be sinking without end

cold and lost and alone…

suddenly I realized

the warped faces that I saw

symbolized all that I had yet to face

and all that came in the past …

with that sudden twisted understanding

my journey came to the end its of icy flight

waking me with a jolt

in the wee hours of a dream tossed dawn…

sharonlee©