Clouds in the valley...

  You should wonder – with amazement What is it you stare; Cyanobacteria, twenty thousand years old, they say But why should anyone care? More beyond drab rocks in limestone tomb, Precious life hides in this stony layer?   The first ones who had learned to breathe, Stromatolites a complex name, But these were the ones who gave out air For the burning world to tame This is then a pilgrimage – one to the farthest past To Life, its primal shrine Last reminders left - how the mortals were woken up When the earth was turned divine…   The sonnet is dedicated to the Nettle Caves in the wider Jenolan Caves network where one can see cyanobacteria in the stromatolite rocks. Stromatolites (meaning layered rocks) are living fossils and the oldest living lifeforms on our planet. They are stony structures built by colonies of microscopic photosynthesising organisms called cyanobacteria. As sediment layered in shallow water, bacteria grew over it, binding...

     This far from civilization, The hills feel like a lost world – Wet forests, cathedral of ferns An antiquity, in green unfurled   If Mount Wilson felt aloof Imagine, further on, the winding road – Mt Irvine, silent cold What lies here? What abode?   Not the English gardens Left behind, in autumn’s colours grand – But something more, unexpected With names from Maori land   In that same hillside, basalt belt, Lie chestnut-walnut farms, Kookootonga – smiling now for fifty years With its own withdrawn austere charms   After the rains, on 40 acres Are strewn, walnuts-chestnuts, on the ground While all along, I wonder In this darkness, how will the stars abound?   No houses anywhere close, A far-off farm on this hillside ridge – Yet, connecting so many lands that Continents join in Kookootonga’s bridge   Buckets fill with bounty nuts It was worth to make this journey long And fee...

  So bleached and lovely the beach, Saying it pristine is not enough - White sands, like a long sickle of talcum And a sea of liquid beryl – Oblivious it needs to be rough   But so many people, I cry, Selfishly wanting all this for my own, Too many honeymooners, Crowding every single view – And smiling, only when the camera shone   Radhanagar’s sunset, had dragged them all To capture in gigabytes, Their posed smiles at every zenith’s angle But will they remember these pixels, In the future of their domestic fights?   The bay’s waters fizz like lemon soda, Washing away the cynicism of my mind, I try to forgive their pretence smiles And yet, too many people to out-walk As much ahead, as much behind   The sunset colours calm me down, And I realise, all this ease is because of them The Critical mass just enough To connect to this faraway land, Without numbers, it wouldn’t be the same   No catamaran cru...

   Up and down the ridge that goes, Through hills of green and Blue - Scattered like a string of pearls, Are tiny townships few   With cosy names of antiquity Of men who found the way, (Alas - the richer history aeons old Has long now withered away)   But in almost every town therein You’re always sure to find, A dainty bookstore in the heart, As if Minerva - she was kind!   Some bygone, and some nascent too The books both preloved-new, In every bookstore you can see A hearty locals’ queue   The bookshops form a winding-trail For pilgrims of the tome, A solitary thread for all those lost, A bookmark back to home   From Glenbrook at the eastern end To Blackheath and beyond, Leura, Lawson, Faulconbridge - The trail’s an erudite bond   Where the musty smell of books beckon Hearts that yearn for ink on page, Volumes of wisdom held up to Turn the readers sage   Where decades w...

  Ochre’s Autumn Filters through the pale of golden leaves;   Making us stop. Look up. For summer’s green was not enough;   Making us stare. In ambered awe - In autumn’s umbrage, its sunset all the day;   Making us wonder. The earth is sunsetting too And is it the only one?   Making us ponder – This abscission, Do we then need it too, that we wake up from time to time?   Making us smile. Our endowment of tears Isn’t it the same? Shed the old, grow the new   Ochre’s Autumn Grants wisdom through the pale of golden leaves   Ensuring, tomorrow We look up again, even when there are no more leaves…   06 th April, 2024

  Looking at you, Awaiting for your reply, Seconds turn slowly to millennia   Your shimmering eyes Swirling galaxies of Infinity Shine with a billion stars   And in that cosmos Of Eternity, we live, we die Untold nebulae, many a star   Through lands unknown, Through times that were never born, We arrive here in the Milky Way   You blink - not realising How many oceans have dried up So the streams in your eyes can fill again   You don’t need to reply, I smile, nod and take my leave You stand surprised as the rains arrive   Don’t you see? The purpose was never to ask, nor respond But to sense that flutter that will never die   I get my answer, My only sadness, how far are you behind Before you realise the truth I see?   I turn back again Faraway you smile, and then it sinks - It was never you, but me so many light years left behind…   05 th April, 2024

Beneath the bunya pines, I rest My tired heart and mind, Under their shade, I feel I leave My tired world behind   The stand of Pines lies on the hills Above urban thoroughfares, An oasis filled with greenery, With sheep and prancing hares   Timeless stands the bunya pines Left on their own, alone Remnant of an ancient Farm Where citrus trees were grown   The rolling hills around the pines Make a meadow evergreen, And from that hilltop, city lights From faraway be seen   It is under these towering pines I find my sanctum pure, Their shadows under sunny skies There is no better cure   And hear the miners, cockatoos As they flit through shade and shine Only bettered by the winds When they whisper through the pine The meadows remind of bugyals that I left far behind at home, Alpine pastures - snow clad peaks This heart still yearns to roam   And sometimes the horizon’s whitened clouds Look l...