Wednesday, February 11, 2009

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.


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