A TENDER WORSHIP

When you came here

It was the time for the acacias

The winter was warm and sweet

With the promise of their flowering.

Old trees, massed dark and green

Bursting suddenly bright yellow

Enriching the valley

Changing with every change

of the sky and the sun.

You are still here

This morning tender tributaries

Swell the plentiful earth.

When you are here

Everything I am doing is for you.

Everything is part of a tender worship

The shining water of the stream in flood

Flowing over flat banks and over the bridge

of weathered railway sleepers. Jarrah trimmed

Long quiet paddocks clover strewn

Orchard ripening pears and sturdy quince

Velvet first fruits and grape bunches

Hanging secretly.

All the blossom and all the fruit

All the harvest when it comes

Even the constant changing of the season

Is yours.