An Old Fisherman

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An Old Fisherman

An old fisherman spent the night here

under the western cliff

He dipped up water from the pure Hsiang

and made a bamboo fire

And then, at sunrise, he went his way

through the cloven mist

With only the creak of his paddle left,

in the greenness of mountain and river

... I turn and see the waves moving as from heaven,

And clouds above the cliff coming idly, one by one

An Old Fisherman

by Liu Zongyuan,

Poet of the Tang Dynasty

Top Painting by Wu Zhen
1280-1354
Painter of the Yuan Dynasty

Bottom Painting by Wang Su
1794-1877
Happy Fisherman

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Sydney for a Day

I went to Sydney today...

Got up at 3am

drove to Brisbane 1hr 45mins away

flew to Sydney

which took 1hr 20mins

Visited the US Consulate

for a multiple entry-long term visa

and had time to walk down Pitt Street

to the harbour

take a few pics on my iphone

before returning to the airport

delayed one hour because of high winds

flew to Brisbane

drove home to Noosa

~ What a long Day ~

But look at Circular Quay

the area of the Sydney Harbour

between the Sydney Harbour Bridge

and the Sydney Opera House

two stunning pieces 

of man made engineering

and architecture

we mingled with the tourists

walking the shoreline

near the very Bay

that Captain James Cook

stepped foot on 

way back in 1788

222 years ago

Cook sailed into Botany Bay

just south of Circular Quay

on the HMS Endeavour

The British planned 

a penal colony for Botany Bay

which in time became the first 

European habitation of Australia

 

 

 

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Sew and Sew

 Cleaning shelves

recently at my Mother's house

In New Zealand

 I found her Elna Sewing machine handbook

 

 Bought before I was born

 The sewing machine

produced most of the garments

we wore as children

until we learned to sew

and made our own

 The sewing machine could even embroider

 In a back pocket of the handbook

I found the original guarantee

from the Robertson reversible Sewing Machine Co

My mother's three girls

dressed in their beautiful dresses

But my favourite dress 

was a red spotted summer number

with matching red piping,

hence the caption on the postcard above

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Evening Bell For Barry

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Silent the old town

the scent of flowers

floating

and evening bell

Basho

Barry Fraser
The Explorer

April 3 1943 - July 20 2010

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Red Pearls

Red Pearls

Here

red pearls

on a vine

once treasures from

South America

now riches of glowing

fire engine red - bright orbs

beckoning to be gently plucked

their pungent aroma and sweet taste

bringing my father's garden back to life

An Etheree poem 

has 10 lines 

of 55 syllables

beginning with one syllable

and building with the addition 

of one syllable each line 

to a total of 10 syllables

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Hell's Gates

I am back in Australia
for a few weeks
attending to chores...
it is wintry
but a good walk today
warmed me up...




Hell's Gates

My walk around the headland

each afternoon

takes me out to Hell's Gates

Here my friend says 

she has seen turtles

I think she confuses the black rocks

beneath the water

for turtle shells...

But wait

is that middle rock moving

Yes it is...

These turtles are Loggerheads

of which there are only 500 nesting females

in Australia

But here comes a set

of huge rolling waves

that crash through Hell's Gates

right up to the abyss

and another wave

rushes in

swirling the sand

and any little turtles

as I walk back

towards the shelter of the bay

The skies redden

and make me think

that on leaving Hell's Gates

I am passing through
Heaven's portals

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Long Summer Days

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Long the summer days

patterns on the ocean sand

our idle footprints

Shiki

Sanderlings on Hanalei Bay, Kauai

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