At Lake Mackenzie

 

 I kayak on the darkest waters

I am all alone, here

No longer enthralled by mortal company

I no longer seem to care

 

For I am exhausted

Tired of my human shell

I have come to the farthest edges of earth

That, in calm, I silent sail

 

This freshwater lake

So quiet, so full of peace,

That the Milky Way seems born now twice

So expansive, it does not cease

 

Beyond the earth, it seems

I am gliding here in a sea of stars

All around – as above, so below, so many

That darkness seems shamefully sparse

 

Have I escaped, I wonder

The weariness of a faraway world?

That the universe opens up

And all secrets are now unfurled

 

The stars of time, the threads of space

Sail on to us, they happily cheer

I row harder and harder still

Now, there is not a drop of fear

 

Until my boat crunches

The end of the universe is reached

The talcum sands of the lake stare back

My kayak and I are beached

 

Is it the end? I sigh in sad

And step on to the silicate sands,

This was the goal, don’t you see?

To come anew in the same old lands

 

The Milky Way now begins to drop

Sail away, sail away, sail away Man

You soared and sailed, we sighed and sang

But this the farthest we both can…

 

31^st July 2025

 

Inspired by a few words by renowned photographer Peter Meyer, who had the fortune to kayak at night on Lake Mackenzie, Fraser Island. In his own words, ‘On some nights when the wind is negligible or from the west, Lake Mackenzie becomes a mirror. I have been canoeing on the lake at night and it becomes so still that a perfect reflection of the stars can be seen. It gives me the impression of canoeing in space…’

I did have the fortune of travelling to Lake Mackenzie in the day, where its soft silicate sands and transparent freshwater makes it seem otherworldly, perched as if, in the farthest corners of the world.

(Cover image: FraserexplorerTours.com)