Noah Beach

Julaymba Rainforest (Daintree), in the lands of the Kuku Yalanji

Once upon a birthday, Meg asked me where I would like to go.

I chose this place, far in the far far North, which in this hemisphere means tropics, rainforest, warmth…

And Meg painted the scene, and just yesterday we were looking at our travel diary, and her art, and my notes, so today I have written this, out of my love for the way that nature takes us out of ourselves, and my love for the woman I travel with, through time, and space, and love.

(A shout out to

Ash Kilback

from Poetry Outdoors. Also to my kindred spirit in love of wilderness, down there in rather less tropical, but sublimely beautiful, Lutruwita (Tasmania) - the wonderful

Kate Bown

)

All the stippled

green of the jungly hills

step stepping down

to the teal of the sea.

Sky painted

cirrus brush

strokes radiated

from a vanishing point

still unseen in the South.

Below in the lower airs

pouted puffs of cumulus self-

generate, drift and

dissipate….

Suspended we are

white noise saturated

by the sound of the

breaking waves.

Watercolouring us, parting

around us, making us

our part of its picture

as the tide comes in.

Framed we are already

standing still, posed

for the sinking

sun.

This stretched

moment hangs

like the painting

it will become….

Art by Meg. Words by me. Bonus prose poem above - for persistent readers - if you can decipher my text. (Obvious misspelling by me, also. Duh!)