Footprints follow wherever I tread
Ink flows on the paper
Trailing dreamings from my head
And heart
We leave marks
Songlines
Tracks
Leading back
A child’s sandcastle is gone on the tide
I watch it fall
Wondering what is the point of it all
All this writing
Stringing words together
Creating pictures
Leaving marks
On a cave wall
Thousands of years old
A spray can spurts quietly in the dark
Tagging
Bragging
He was here
So am I
So am I
A pyramid crumbling around the edges
Such edifice
Such pride
He was here
So was she
So am I
Shards of pottery
Gravestones in a row
They were here
Now they’re gone
Where do we go?
Or come from for that matter
Because we all think
We matter
In a dusty shed an artist mixes colours
Paints without thought of a buyer
He is here
So he paints
She crafts pots
Another inks dots
Building sandcastles
The child laughs
Stomps
Knocks it down
Blowing breath to fire
I watch the paper burn
News story
Black and white
Now turning brown
Byline meant so much more
When she wrote it
Now it’s yesterday’s sandcastle
Here comes the wave
Wave
Waving goodbye
But you were here
As was I
The header picture is of Uluru or Ayres Rock an Australian Icon and a place of great importance to the local Anangu people.
The photo was taken on a trip there earlier this year.
We sat in the dark, watched the sun come up over the rock. We were a fair way back, the rock is huge and in order to get good photos you have to stand further away from it.
Later we moved closer and toured some of the aboriginal paintings in various sacred places with our guide.
To be near something so timeless and ancient to feel your diminutive size and momentary lifespan, the fleeting fragile nature of our time here.
For me it was very moving – haunting and comforting at the same time.
It provides an anchor for the restless soul.
Some things do last – for great periods of time barely changed by the passage of so many seasons, storms and events.
We are so very small and fleeting by comparison
So very small
And
Fleeting
I used to struggle with why I blogged, wrote, created, chewed pencils, stared at walls trying to come up with something or nothing much at all – wondering all the time if perhaps I was wasting gigantic tracts of time and should be doing something more worthwhile instead.
I don’t worry about that anymore.
Do what you love – whatever that is because we are only here for a short time.
Loved the poem 🙂
Thankyou 😘
This poem is absolutely beautiful. very powerful and deep. To be near something so ancient must have been incredible. Thank you for posting this 🙂
Thanks again! Your comments are much appreciated