Lily's Song

This poem was written whilst I was travelling to Coff's Harbour to meet up with my school friend Jen, for what was to prove a wild and blustery short stay at South West Rocks, near Trial Bay, which is stunningly beautiful. Back at Jen' house I again read her book about Gerard Manley Hopkins, whom she studied at school and had introduced to me (who had to make do with yet more Wordsworth...) There are echoes of Hopkins' lines in my poem. My visit to Armidale inevitably took me down Memory Lane, especially spending time with Jen's lovely mum. She did not want to be told that she is still, in her nineties, 'lovely', but it is true. She remarked, somewhat bemused, that I 'hadn't half changed since I was a girl'! That will be the 4 children, 3 grandchildren and 45 years, I thought....

Thank you Jen, for our 50 years of friendship- come September; and Alan, still so caring and warm; and Brendan for being such a credit to his family as a Young Life worker, plus funny and interesting too.

This poem is dedicated to Lily, the most wonderful granddaughter anyone could wish for. I think, after talking to her about her current reading that she may understand more of this poem than I first thought, although she is still only 10.

Lily’s Song

I saw this morning, Morning Glory
Indigo splashing on Bondi wall
Memory’s eye clicked and locked it in
Saved with same, convolvulus climbing
Rampant over Keralan hillside
Blue as the picture book butterflies

Lone traveller, my poem drops on
Boarding pass, Quantas to Coff’s Harbour
Through ten shades of blue where ocean ends
And sky begins, remembering Pied
Beauty, Hopkins’ Glory Be To God
Astonishing quite my schoolgirl self

I think of Lily, beloved child
Each morning’s sun and evening star
Growing in beauty, her spirit free
In a French landscape, to soar and fly
Grounded in love, a fragile blossom
Still, tightly I hold her in my heart