‘Bush Walking and Time Travel’

May 20, 2018

If you don’t know the poetry of Cameron Semmens, this example will show you why you’ll want to learn more about him and his work, here: http://www.webcameron.com/

Today
I take my hunchbacked heart
for a walk
in cathedrals of trees.

And each step
off-road, off-grid, on dirt,
returns me
to an earlier me –
to a memory of milk teeth smiles
and always look up.

And with each step,
on this day
(I wish it always felt like this),
my thoughts
become more like dragonflies;
and my muscles
more like winter bees;
and slowly
the skin of my civilised self
hardens and sheds
– a cicada shell;
and suddenly,
from the outside,
I can see the useless husk it was –
so fragile and constrictive.

And as I keep walking
further into the forest
all my        straight lines
begin to warp and twist like wattle branches;
and all my        black-and-whites
are softened into shades of green;
and all my        human grandness
shrivels and cowers
beneath a towering grove
of mountain ashes.

Fecund,
meandering,
I grow into my youth
like a tree
re-entering the seed.

I am simpled;
trimmed back
to a beautiful
potential.

I know,
in many ways,
this cannot last;
but
I also know
this moment is growing roots;
this moment is digging in deep;
this moment is going to
sprout words
and flower into poetry –
I can see
the lines, like leaves,
already forming:

Today
I take my hunchbacked heart
for a walk
in cathedrals of trees…