Poem: Evening in the Dial Ranges
In consecutive poems this week and next in Poet’s Corner, Leon van der Linde looks at two close by but contrasting parts of north-west Tasmania.
Evening in the Dial Ranges
The evening wavers silently
behind Mt Gnomon
then slowly descends
leisurely blurring
the range’s
undulating slopes
bringing with its
early breezes
faintest scents
of eucalypt,
bracken fern and heath,
bouncing their colours
playfully around –
olive, dark-green,
light-pink and cream
as I slowly amble along
guided by the last
streaming slivers
of chalk-white light
savouring the company
of my bush block gums
You might like
my footsteps
carefully tracing
maps drawn
by many summers’
dried leaves and twigs
I raise my glass
of ruby-red merlot
to the quiet murmurs
of blackwood and wattle
a toast to the end
of another
memorable day
laden with its own
special meanings –
and mine.
Leon van der Linde was born in Zambia. After 10 equally inspiring years in Tasmania, he now 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…’