Poem: Half Moon Creek
In this week’s Poet’s Corner contribution, Leon van der Linde looks at the Great Lake region of central northern Tasmania.
Half Moon Creek
‘De Spatio Reali’ ∗
Halfway to Miena
the Milky Way
hangs differently
so much brighter
and closer, that,
if you wish,
you can reach out
and touch
the powder-white
brush dots
painted by the moon
and stars at night
all swirling around,
like fluorescent
shoals of fish,
in an ocean
of constellations
here at Half Moon Creek
the stars sit differently,
like a tiara,
glittering diamond-white
in the charcoal sky
and when you
listen intently
you can hear
their whispering
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telling cosmic tales
of patterned chaos
and interplaying polarities
repeated since the
beginning of time…
∗ Editor’s notes: ‘De Spatio Reali’ refers to the pantheistic philosophies as espoused by Joseph Raphson, Baruch Spinoza, Jonathan Edwards, Giordano Bruno and other thinkers, encompassing – as today’s contributor has also said in respect to writing his poem – the idea that “natural reality nurtures our spiritual component and that we, therefore, should approach nature with gratitude, respect, and reverence”.
Leon van der Linde was born in Zambia. He lives with his family on a small farm near the rural locality of Yarrowyck on the western slopes of the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales and works as a psychologist in nearby Armidale. “Yallaroo is a jewel and I have found home…”