Still A Few Warm Memories Endure Poem by Terence George Craddock

still a few warm memories endure
glow with warm wonder like glowworms
deep underground glowing in total darkness
in glowworm spin spiral incredible galaxies
on cave rooftop while a flowing underground
river flows through time water carved passages
beneath warm mind memories endure

still a few warm memories endure
waking on warm earth from sleep
near edge of wilderness trails once
walked in those dry summer spells
in New Zealand on native wilderness
trails walking mountain beech forests
time unique subtropical rainforests

all those secret wonderful microclimates
near my hometown youth teenage birthplace
these were my cathedral arching canopy trees
extending to far walked mountain ridgelines
where youth knew a holy mountain holy place
can be moments sacred felt in any sudden
entered wilderness space when some strange

creation lingering energies strike pierce
heart mind soul causing a weird sense
that vitalised soul might vibrate straight
off face of earth to mind rapture explore
light years distant cosmic universal spaces
energies vibrant easily overwhelm senses
time echoes still a few warm memories

still a few warm memories endure
sleep waking on a rocky riverbed
summertime alone where slept
without need tent shelter in sleeping
bag in ground sheet spread on ground
found small stretched out body space
after clear summer night all night

trying to stay awake to watch stars
slow time seconds minutes changeless
move across dark night sky in star blaze
constellations hours spent throughout
night dozing off to watch frozen time
so slow slow stars shift in sky waking
to star changes finally waking to late

morning warm starlight not a single wild
creature disturbed my star quest night
not a single creature morning moves
buzzes this dry riverbed space a gusting
creek rapid flows twenty to twenty-five
metres from my riverbed slept space
and I wake refreshed to in a few days

time make a new overseas journey

still a few less warm colder memories endure
waking before dawn stand to later morning
watching early morning valley mist rise
slow time in slowly earth warming
time like patches of white smoke
from campfires within tree line rising
on a hillside beneath a ridge slowly sun

warmed a good two to three hundred metres
distance time mixes in mist in white smoke
rising mist illusions imagination stirs
in gentle breeze stirring morning
to walk to tree line to walk within
to commune with campers at their campsite
morning fires within tree line to know

who they are know they feel how
their morning is going what plans
they have made but reality knows
only disappointment waits within tree line
there are no campers to commute
with early morning valley mist
rises from earth within tree line

creating an illusion of campsite fires
smoke rising within tree line a few white
low clouds have awoken near the ridge
near the tree line to imperceptibly rise
in morning time to be warmer midday
sudden gone all these many remote
valleys have differing light sunrise sunset

times depending on light height blocked
by surrounding mountains local knowledge
fast gathers stores local knowledge in
time walked immersion bushcraft skills
in the silences nature time whispers
to vision rural eyes secrets city eyes
rising late rarely see like a blind person

motion moving missing subtle ever talking
changing wilderness times sometimes
to immerge from wilderness is like
a deep-sea diver breaking sea surface
after deep dives wilderness to cityscape
are vast differing contrast images to wilderness
travellers returning abruptly into town city civilization

scenes stillness wilderness ghost echoes
in senses for a time wilderness images
stir wilderness minds; postcards
internet television documentaries
scenic images lack feel of air breeze
wind on face heat of sun or wetness
feel fresh rain on skin sounds smells bugs

all sight absent sensation dynamic interactions


Terence George Craddock (Afterglows Echoes Of Starlight)
Copyright © Terence George Craddock