301. Silver (and Blue)

Todays's colour for MY TRUE COLOURS is SILVER.

The emotion I try to convey here, in a very slight poem, is heartfelt and true. As a young girl, in England, I used to gaze, spellbound, at silver birches against blue sky. I can't say I felt a presentiment, or anything like that; just a sort of 'rightness' feeling, combined with excitement. Decades later I found myself in Australia, where many eucalyptus trees also have that delicate silver sheen in the bark, and where the skies are often amazingly blue. And I still feel the same magic, although, now, it is tinged with sadness.

SILVER (AND BLUE)

The silver birches sang to me

As I was walking by.

Their branches etched, with elegance,

Against the light blue sky.

And suddenly ....I can't explain....

I absolutely knew

That the background to my life would be

Silver....silver and blue.

The birches of that Northern home

Were delicate and slim,

And sometimes, in that light blue sky,

The sun shone pale and dim,

But, even so..... I can't explain....

I felt that it was true

That the background to my life would be

Silver....silver and blue.

The gum-trees of my Southern home

Are birches in disguise.

They flash their silver bark against

Delirious blue skies.

But they prove that it has happened

As I guessed that it would do.

For the background to my life is still

Silver....silver and blue.

And when I I see the eucalypts

With their lovely silver sheen,

I think back to that other land

And trees of a different green.

And I feel a certain homesick pang

For the land where birches grew.

Though the background to my life is still

Silver....silver and blue.