In the morning light,

When the air is still,

Before the noises of the day

Intrude upon the mind,

A certain clarity 

Becomes a possibility,

When in moments of repose,

One can turn inside

To find deeper moods, 

Both beautiful and darker spaces, 

Places of uncertainty,

Tinged thus with anxiety,

As if, when walking in wild hills,

One comes across a vantage point,

A jutting outcrop of rock,

Overhanging a plunging valley,

And standing there alone,

One's consciousness sinks into the abyss,

Its tumbled sea of wooded slopes, 

Above which rise rugged pinnacles

Wreathed round with mountain mist.



Across a vault so vast, 

A tiny bird,

Caught in a ray of sunshine,

Seems to hang and float,

As might a dust-mote,

In a beam of tinted light,

Streaming down 

Into the transept of a great cathedral,

Illuminating the space

With divine renown, 

A sacred sense of depth,

With perspective so beyond 

All human understanding,

As to still one's breath

And overwhelm the viewer

With a sense sublime,

So near the dread of death.



Pondering thus, 

In awe,

I follow with my eyes 

The rugged forest,

Sweeping steeply down
Towards the valley-floor,

Those silent soundings

Somewhere out of sight, 

Which seem to promise 

More than I can see,

Invoking a sense of mystery

Of something hidden 

In the unseen depths below, 

And a sense again,

Of something closer still,

An abiding presence 

Of a far more intimate kind,

Calling me downward,

And, in my mind,

I begin to descend, 

Over great granite boulders,

Hand-holds found on branches, 

Offered here and there

In the tumble of mighty rocks

By trees clinging to crevices between,

Bending as they take my weight,

Shaking rustling leaves,

As I climb downward carefully,

Hand over hand,

With lack of sureness,

And fear of a poor foothold,

A slide of rock, a slip, 

A fatal fall,

Into the abyss.



At last when I have scrambled down

The wild and rough escarpment,

I stop to catch my breath,

Beneath the mass of rock,

The titanic building blocks

Of this timeless landscape,

I find the ancient ground gives way 

To a less demanding gradient, 

And my breathing comes more easily

Descending now less dangerously, 

My shoulders brushed 

By lighter leafy foliage, 

As I step down through dense bush,

Pushing back branches from my face,

Sliding over fallen trees,

And make my way down,

Through thigh-high bracken,

Between the trunks of mighty 

Mountain eucalypts,

Those giants marching silently

Down to the valley floor.



Down here the air is cooler,

And I hear a distant murmur, 

Not of mountain breezes 

Sighing in the tops of trees,

But rather the enticing sound 

Of running water, 

Coming from an unseen place,

Nearby, waiting to be found

In this shadowed peaceful realm,

Where sunlight touches softly,

Catching the frond of a fern,

Shining on smooth white boughs,

And I go further down and in,

Until the watery bell-clear sound

Seems all around, 

And reflected light catches my eye,

Between the trees and foliage,

Until eventually 
I step out into a clearing

An open space

Where there is a great flat rock,

Around which a shallow creek flows

Over a bed of white stones, 

And two great straight trees

Stand like sentinels, 

Guardians of this lovely glade, 

Water gurgling around and below 

Their gnarled roots built like buttresses.



Here I stand in breathless silence, 

Marvelling at the light

Filtering down

Through the towering trees

And floating fronds of tree-ferns

High above me,

Its soft and golden luminosity

Bringing a sense of mystery, 

And the grandeur of stillness 

To this peaceful place,

Where water trickles soothingly.


And as the beauty of this vale

Fills my mind with thoughts

Of Nature's splendour,

I sense the presence

Of that one,
I far too easily forget,
Who abides here in this valley,

Who appears

Unbidden in my dreams,

And whose steady gaze

Has always brought me back

To deep reflection,

For she is my mirror,

Soul, and centre of my being,

And I sense her standing 

Close beside me

By the running stream,

Arms outstretched to welcome me

To our place of blissful unity,

Where I will never be alone,

For she is ever-present here,

Always awaiting my descent,

My return to what is home, 

So felt with awe and gratitude,

Our lovely Vale of Solitude.