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The sky, the sunlight, 

the water, the green earth — 

I live and move and breathe 

in the midst of this natural wonder

called the Mt Warning Caldera:

vast, ancient, fertile bowl

ringed by mountains and ocean,

surrounding that great central peak

where the light of dawn first touches 

my island continent: Australia.

I grew on a tinier island, southernmost

point of this land, almost a secret,

where lakes and prehistoric forests,

mountains and pristine coast,

still require trek or pilgrimage

from the most determined traveller

to arrive in unpeopled wilderness, struck 

by such magnificence it dwarfs you;

you want to bow down (perhaps you do)

thanking God, or Fate, or the Universe.

Later I crossed the Strait, found at length 

a treed suburb in a city by the sea, 

good place for raising children,

messing about in boats and libraries —

a base from which to travel

up the leafy, happy east coast, 

north to the steamy tropics, west

to a wilder ocean, or into the central desert
(full of flowers and birds that year, after rain)
with its one giant monolith.

This is a wondrous country! The first people

on earth lived here (don’t believe 
those tales that we began in Africa; here 

the Original People know better: I’ve studied 

their lore of the stars) and they still live 

here today — along with many others, 

arriving for conquest maybe; staying for love

of green earth or wide brown land (it's A Big

Country) of sparkling water, abundant sunshine,

and a quality of light seen only in this sky.


Written in response to April 2020, Day 24: Natural Wonders, at 'imaginary garden with real toads'. I intended to write only about the area where I now live, but couldn't stop until I'd included the whole country! I thought of calling it 'Sacred Land' – but aren't they all? The Earth is sacred; I wish that was more widely understood.


Notes: 

A Big Country was a much-loved, long-running (1968-1991) TV documentary exploring Australian rural life.

Artists (and others) have remarked on the wonderful quality of the light in Australia, even in winter, found nowhere else.

Stella Whieldon on Origine' Cultural Star Lore.

Image: Fair Use.