Poem #3
No Comments »28th July, 2006; Category: Poetry
Morning Mist
Mist in the morning,
Mist in the valley,
Flowing silently
Over mountain ridges
Down into valleys.
Hovering, dampening,
Evil and close.
Sunlight
Weak and cold,
Meekly trying
To brighten the day.
No bird sings.
No creature stirs.
All is silent
Cold and damp.
I shiver
And sullenly tramp
On through the wet grass,
Down through the gloom
Of the valley ahead.
A lone magpie
Bravely carols a greeting
And I courageously
Shout in reply
But my words
Only echo
Mockingly
As a flurry of feathers
Tell of my departing friend.
But the spell has been broken.
The mist
Like a stealthy ghost
Slips silently away,
Quickly enveloped
By the strengthening glow
Of the new day’s sun.
All rights reserved.
Copyright 2006 Trevor W. Hampel.
Poem #2
Mallee Scrub
The quiet stillness
Is gently disturbed
By the soft thornbill’s song.
We stop and listen.
We wander aimlessly,
Watching out for orchids,
Correas and sundews.
We admire the soft pink
Of the spidery
Flowering grevilleas.
We stare in awe
At the bright
Golden banksia
As it leaps skyward,
Outlined dazzlingly
Against the winter’s
Azure sky,
On fire in the setting sunlight.
We freeze.
We dare not move.
Barely twenty paces ahead
A malleefowl scratches the earth,
Searching for seeds and beetles.
We blink.
The bird departs,
Lost in the shadows
With its cryptic camouflage.
A day to remember.
A day of awe and wonder
Admiring His Creation.
All rights reserved.
Copyright 2006 Trevor W. Hampel.
First published in Compedium magazine, 1996.
Poem #1 Symphony of the Forest
No Comments »14th July, 2006; Category: Poetry
Symphony of the Forest
Father and I wandered through the forest
Among tall pine trees,
Stately and stark.
Frost covered the ground –
White in patches
Between the trees.
Sunlight filtering
Through the branches,
Lighting a million
Drops of dew
Like so many jewels
Hanging with fragility
On twigs and needle tips.
Sun’s rays catching up
So much beauty
In their arms
And softly caressing them.
The crisp air caught
Our breath
And our hearts
As they jumped to echo the burst
Of a bird call
Somewhere up in the topmost branches.
The sound came like
An unexpected thunder clap,
Clear as a slap
On somebody’s back
And then went
Rumbling, tumbling,
Cascading through the forest
From tree to tree,
On through the cold, crystal air,
Reverberating and resonating
In our ears
And in our hearts
Long after it came
To its symphonic completion.
- All rights reserved.
- Copyright 2006 Trevor W. Hampel
- First published in Expression magazine in 1972.
- It received an honourable mention in the Henderson Memorial Prize for Poetry.
- Read some more of my poetry here.
Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens