At Wentworth Falls
by Peter Stiles
He will rejoice over you with singing. (Zephaniah 3:17)
I hear Him singing in mountain air that
sweeps across these vast, cliff ridden valleys.
Like stark, breath-taking, rustic, music scores
from which a loving voice implores
in sotto voce tones, a care, that ruffles gumtrees,
lifting hair, and hat rim, in the winter sun.
I hear Him singing in the waterfall that
rushes, roaring, reckless down
onto the distant valley floor,
startling tourists with a sense of height,
tuned with timpani both day and night.
A symbol of liquid certainty, a lyric of authority.
I hear Him singing in banksias seen
scattered through this verdant green,
with cockatoos, both black and white.
Kookaburras, birds in flight,
that call from ridge to bushland, thick,
with melaleucas, rock and moss,
impenetrable foliage, glossed,
songlines heard through gain and loss.
I hear Him singing in pause and haste,
He bastes this place with love and grace.
Peter Stiles lectures at Excelsia University College in Sydney, Australia. His third collection of verse, Galilee, has just been published, and is available on Amazon.
Photography by Kenneth Godoy