This morning a bird I could not name spanned a sun I could not tame and on the road the dazzled day turned and turned its winding way. Through chicanes, past milkbars ran the path to work, the time to plan, but I was struck by birds in view on Kookaburra Avenue. And God I’mContinue reading “Birdsville, Werribee”
Tag Archives: birds
Music for children’s choir
Headphone-bound, children sing as I round the corner. The nonchalance of late morning traffic greets a flutter of flight – black and white feathers – painting the street in uncontrolled strokes: a rise, a swoop, a leap, a fall. Ballet-graced, yet deadly in its implications: too wild, too close to the turmoil of wheels.Continue reading “Music for children’s choir”
All the birds of the freeway
I journey between factories and billboards and trees; needles of light pierce the morning sky, and in the east the vermilion city wakes. Spanning the distance, birds fly in sequence, sweeping sheets, kites, giant gulls across the horizon. When I arrive I will be static, and spark at friction from those who start their dayContinue reading “All the birds of the freeway”
10 Ways to Embrace the Ring Road
Embrace it. No other time of day can you sit still, without compunction. Here schedules mean nothing. You may be late; that cannot be stopped. Yet you can stop. You can look at clumps of grass and broccoli gums in wetlands and wonder how they looked before this road was even thought. You can watchContinue reading “10 Ways to Embrace the Ring Road”
Lent: The Wait, the Weight 1
Waves drag, anchor fails – my God my God why In this torpor, what lifts? The heart, bird-like, hovers – an albatross, a vulture? Yet a dove dives deep and holds; it coos what cannot be cried. My God my God why – too heavy for words, yet hands can be raised, barely, above theContinue reading “Lent: The Wait, the Weight 1”
Afternoon Flight
A willy wagtail, was it? Perhaps, but no time to check What Bird Is That? as it wags its way through lanes at lights, a truck here turning, there a foot compressing asphalt. Yes, I have seen its tail – proud tuft of feathers – pluckily braving the afternoon rush, and seen it hover,Continue reading “Afternoon Flight”
Collects: Sparrows (After Knut Nystedt and Anathallo)
Collects: Sparrows After Knut Nystedt, “Prayers of Kierkegaard, Pt. 3: Great Are You, O God” and Anathallo, “Sparrows” I. When under the arch of heaven I stand surrounded by the wonders of creation, I rapturously and adoringly praise your greatness, you who lightly hold the stars in the infinite and concern yourself fatherly with theContinue reading “Collects: Sparrows (After Knut Nystedt and Anathallo)”
Psalm: Chorale (The Cornucopia of Heaven)
Early on Saturday morning, the fire brigade was called to my church – a 150-year-old heritage-listed building on the corner of one of Melbourne’s most iconic streets, and the building which my fiancée and I recently booked to celebrate our marriage. That day, the Bible reading my church family was looking at in our devotional timesContinue reading “Psalm: Chorale (The Cornucopia of Heaven)”
The Consolations of Writing 