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ARTS AND CULTURE

Death and resurrection on Christmas Rock

  • 05 April 2016

 

Whispering hills   The breeze spills engulfing gorges, ruffling trees. The leaves whisper ancestral stories, signalling from hill to hill creation mysteries. The track wends past abandoned tennis courts their turf is crushed, compacted anthills that Salmon gums reclaim. The creek is waterless but when seeded with rain froglets bleat like lambs. Once trees flaming orange were common on Christmas Rock the granite, grey with age, once barren yet when Earth trembled, it crevassed and soil collected, water funnelled, plants sowed. Myrtle now crowns the rock with orange-brown senescence with rain it resurrects and transforms to green with red flowers. It's the song of seasons: Creation, Christmas, Death and Resurrection.         Big sky   altocumulus thatched with diagonal rain                                                    distance                                                    expanse fields filled with stubble luminescent_ silent transcendent_ landscape   in other places ancient mesas delineate power matrixes god-generated patterns in heaven and earth where human communities and gods converge   surveying the paddock the black stone monolith Moolymoonga is sacred to the Naaguja mesas skirted with grain, green then golden belong to the Irish vistas of mesas connect peoples under one big sky         Peace   A narrow track through trees. Green moss on granite outcrops. Sun-wet grass trees. The fragrance of coming rain. The dance and song of a blue wren. A robin red-breast fluffing feathers. The laughter of kookaburras. The creaking click of frogs. A symphony played by water drizzling on stepped rocks. The choreography and crack of flames fingering axe-pared logs in a fireplace when outside rain thrums and wind beckons to come in. A glint of sun on dark water in motion like the eyes' irises coinciding a smile. A hug from a friend with whom you've journeyed for years who knows the darkness inside you but chooses to see the light. A bath scented with lavender. The after-glow embrace of a long-time lover.         The geometry of maple leaves   Acer shirasawanum Thirteen rose´ tinged tantours on a harvest moon head, number God's mercies, he bends, blesses. Aconitifolium Eight gold fleur de lis number new beginnings, diaspora, those saved in the ark, covenants and circumcision. Eight gold fleur de lis numbering new beginnings, diaspora, those saved on the ark, circumcision, covenants. Dissectum Atropurpureum Segments, seven the number of divine completion, deeply cut crimson weeps Jesus said, 'It is finished.' Vitifolium Six serrated spearheads dipped in blood. The sixth command, 'You shall not slay.' Villa Taranto Five ruby spires number redemption, Jesus' sacrifice gives us a wiped slate. Beni Schichihenge Four teal tripods with cream edges stained in red wine, nature's number: seasons, compass points, coverings for Yahweh's tent. A lone leaf afloat on an invisible sea comes to rest ashore aground, gradually it senesces compost for
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