Yarra Morning
The songs of Birrarung
dancing in the coolness
of morning on the Yarra
We join her woven
entanglement of life
inclined in conversation
Lying in the grass, held
in her embrace, the sound
and scent of her living body
We enter that familiar merging
that wonderful diffusion of
oneself and another —
a gentle dissociation of boundary
into the twice-blessed being
of what we are together
We uncurl, and standing
begin to wander back
along the riverside
Before parting with a kiss and
whole-body heart love hugs
and that glorious smile of yours
For Jordhana.
During this time of physical isolation, I find myself yearning for the touch of loved ones and the deep nourishment of nature, and this poem takes me back to the feeling of being close to a beloved friend in the embrace of nature. I hope it may remind you also of a time when you felt the closeness of physical contact.
This poem is set in the Yarra River that runs through the heart of Melbourne, also called Birrarung in the languages of first nations people from these parts. I offer my respect to their elders, past, present and emerging, and acknowledge that this land was stolen and sovereignty was never ceded.
© Simon Wade 2020. All rights reserved.
