ESCARPMENT-FIBONACCI POETRY

ESCARPMENT - FIBONACCI POETRY by VIRGINIA GOW

now available on Amazon ISBN: 978-09923009-7-5 (paperback)

ARTISTIC RETREAT

SERENITY COTTAGE ARTISTIC RETREAT

Tap into your own creativity.

Idyllic mountain setting in Blue Mountains.

2 ½ hours by train from Central Station or 2 hours by car from Sydney.

Studio-based tuition in drawing and painting.

Materials by arrangement.

Enjoy village life and wholesome home cooking in an artist-friendly atmosphere.

$150 per night. Special offer $500 for 4 nights.

Cost Includes: Accommodation in own spacious room, all home cooked meals and tuition by professional artist.

All enquiries to Virginia Gow.

Email: vgow@hotmail.com

Mobile:0415093557

Phone:0247877370

Manly Poetry Society

MANLY POETRY SOCIETY

MEETING

TUESDAY

11^{TH SEPTEMBER}

^{CAROLE’S PINK PALACE}

^MANLY

^{TOPIC: BACKYARD BOUNTY}

^{10 AM TO 12 PM}

^{BRING A POEM}

R.S.V.P.

0415093557

VIRGINIA GOW

CONVEYNOR

Guringai Dreaming

GURINGAI DREAMING

Older than the Elders the Land endures.

Saltwater people, fisher folk

Women gather berries, men hunt and fish,

Ku-ring-ai, Guringai people

Kayimai, Cannalgal clans gather here,

Camping by the shores of Sydney Harbour.

Rich white and red ochre

Colour the layered sandstone rocks at North Head.

Sacred burial grounds and bora rings

Lie in ancient splendour

Protected by paper bark trees.

Spring fed water pool,

Ridgelines in the sun

Show the way to sharpen tools

Make the flour for the damper.

Middens shade the southern way.

Black snake basks in the noonday warmth

Lies near the waterfall at Spring Cove.

Gives the timeworn track

That leads to clean water

Creating a deadly protection.

Arabanoo meets Phillip here.

Phillip takes Arabanoo away to Sydney Town.

Tries to learn Language, Culture and Identity,

In the spirit of friendship, he studies

Speaks an ancient tongue.

Arabanoo catches the Smallpox and passes away.

Spear in the leg for Phillip.

Willemring from Broken Bay, a koradgee man who wealds

This three pronged spear

Turns a history point.

Is it payback for the whale feast, behave Phillip.

Crossover cultures interpret events differently.

Perhaps there is a dreaming tale

Of mother and her calf

Learning the whale song of the harbour

Protected by the song men of these shores.

Colbee and Bennalong were Manly men who were next to be invited

To go, by boat, to Sydney Town they crossed over.

Colbee escaped, koradgee man dreaming.

Bennalong traveled to England with Phillip,

But still, he longed for his land of the saltwater people.

So did the woman sit in the little rock cave?

Awaiting her husband’s return,

Watch, until the glow of a western sunset

Let her slip into the dark waters of the bay?

As dolphins play down Manly way.

Smallpox decimated the Aboriginal people.

Wailing all around the rocks and crevasses.

Too many, too soon to know.

Within two years the songs and ceremonies faded.

But the Land endures.

Hanging out with the Tasman Poets.

HANGING OUT WITH THE TASMAN POETS                                              

It was a symposium, a gathering of mind-mixing poets from home and away

Spanning the Tasman, Kiwi and Aussie

Blending their energies by making presentations

Participating in audience, bonding with words

Effective cross-cultivation of accents and ideas

Four poets sat at the ‘bridge’ table, papers ready

Willing faces beamed back at them

Currents flowed with witticism

Mind sketches of vibrating rhythms

Oh, listen to tall Samoan Princess delivering a saga

Long Pele hair, cascading over ruby lace top

Then picture a vision,

A teller of talking stick, exotically carved by renown artist

Imagine it held proudly in the hand of winsome Poet Laureate Michele

Opened up a vista of legacy passing over

Shifting human endeavour to another level

Oh, memorize the line of another voice

Who likes to go under the bridge?

And talk of pigs and chicken wire

Aeroplanes soar and roar

Whilst peanut butter is given a triple serve

Rippling lyrics hold the air

Only a silver slice is served

So this is a symposium, what a poetic mix!

Glad to be hanging out with these folk

They add abundance to the cultural fix

Following the thread of a yesterday

Catch the ferry to Cockatoo Island

The sign “Have a Ferry Happy Day”

Welcomed one and all

Follow the slim, silken thread

Seamed together, warm sandstones, marbled in rich ochre

Tunneled into cliff, cut out of an olden day prison

Man’s monumental natural art gallery of shipbuilding past, soaring umber rusted cranes

Huge bolt lathe holders, like Easter Island protectors

Preserved on this island for us to gaze at and enjoy

Wander around, hanging out with the Tasman Poets

Ferry home was named “Friendship”, good call.

VIRGINIA JEAN GOW  13/09/10