Poems: Living With Trees, Where We Belong

Living With Trees

Third Creek, Torrens Catchment, South Australia

Living with trees is enlightening

Worlds of wonder exist beneath bark

For centuries now stretching skyward

River Red Gums inhabit the park.

As roots follow calls from their network

Sending moisture and minerals to all

Communal life thrives amongst giants

Possumed hollows emerge when limbs fall.

Each morning I’m woken by birdsong

In this corner of Earth I call mine

The creek takes me back to my childhood

While the gums whisper wisdom divine.

Where We Belong

This earth is ours to care for

It gives us air to breathe

A symbiotic sharing

To give and to receive

So nurture it with kindness

It’s where we know our song

And in return it feeds us

This land where we belong.

Kathryn von Bergen lives in Adelaide. She has focused on her poetry since retirement from a long and varied career in education, details of which can be found with her previous Poet’s Corner appearance on 23 May. As well, she established and ran the Leadlight Language Studio for a decade, designing and constructing window art for homes in South Australia and overseas, and now creates collage artworks featuring her poetry and exhibited in recent SALA and Fringe exhibitions in Adelaide. Kathryn is also a volunteer for The Gums Landcare Group.

Readers’ original and unpublished poems of up to 40 lines can be emailed, with postal address, to [email protected]. Submissions should be in the body of the email, not as attachments. A poetry book will be awarded to each accepted contributor.

Main image:
Third Creek, Torrens Catchment, South Australia. Photo: Kathryn von Bergen