Between aspiring, cloud-laced mountain peaks,
The ancient Giant White Hand reaches over,
Its outstretched fingers, cool and crystalline,
Grasping at rock and tree in the valley below,
Its cracked fingernails stained translucent blue,
Scratching steadily at the gritty surface of soaking ground …
… Shrouded in silence …
Crack!
A raucous, rumbling avalanche of icy flesh flakes away
and cascades over jagged knuckle and smooth snowy skin …
… Then silence again.
But for the drip, drip, dripping
of pure water-sweat from some gigantic invisible effort,
Tarrying a while in turquoise pools,
Slithering away in swift-flowing streams,
Racing down rocky channels in churning rapids,
Wildly leaping off clinging cliffs in thunderous waterfalls,
Freely frothing over into fathomless fjords,
Then silently melting with its maternal source,
The sea.
Until one day, it is born again of heavenly seed,
New blood,
perhaps to pulse through the veins
Of the next Giant White Hand
To wave over our Earth orb.
Wayne Visser © 1998
Book
Wishing Leaves: Favourite Nature Poems
This creative collection, now in its 3rd edition, brings together nature poems by Wayne Visser, celebrating the diversity, beauty and ever-changing moods of our planet. The anthology includes many old favourites like “I Think I Was a Tree Once” and “A Bug’s Life”, as well as brand new poems like “Monet’s Dream” and “The Environmentalist”. Then as we turned our faces to the moon / Our hands entwined, our hearts in sync, in tune / We felt the fingers of the silken breeze / And made our wishes on the falling leaves / A gust of wind set off a whispered sigh / Among the trees that leaned against the sky. Buy the paper book / Buy the e-book.
