Days 1 And 2 Neverfail Bay Poem by Danny Draper

Bowline fast at Neverfail mooring
Listless boat slides on breath and tide
Inky black and silver buffed dull,
Mist ragged, scrapes and drags
on surrounding hills,
Night expunged by pressing glow
Cool air seeps in open porthole,
Crackles through the hull and surface tension
Soft breeze has the water a shiver
Dark forms uniform now myriad o' colour,
Dew drips from roof to deck
Mullet launch and dive with prey
Boat glides its dance around the buoy
Opening the landscape port to starboard
Bellbirds ring from distant croft
The stream tumbles in' the bay
A hung towel occasionally taps the side
Kookaburras call and then are silent
Rock strata crumble
Forming slope and ledge
Crag and crevice, floater stones
Skeletal soils, adapted forest
Belies the struggle and endured privation
A line demarks wet and dry
Silt and oysters roots and debris
Tufts of foam and journeying leaves
Aloft the stillness aimless go
Whip Birds extend taper and snap
Sprinkles of flowering Eucalypts
Pronounce the canopy
Sheoaks brown and purple tinge
Lichen illuminates rock surface clean
Intensity details canopy's relief.
Hills fold into rainforest creek
Sweet water pools at Water Gum's feet
Cool over stones curved by time
Sea Eagles effortlessly arc the bay
Clutch firm their observational roost
And silently survey the unfolding day.



Note: Written 9/4/2005 when lucky enough to be on a houseboat on the Hawkesbury River NSW for a week.