Murray River Dreaming

          Murray River Dreaming       20 July 2000

 

Murray River dreaming has become reality,

Many years of longing have drawn me close at last.
Lifeblood of the country, how bountiful you seem,
But do we have the wisdom to protect your vital needs?

Sunlit jewels of pelicans glide along our wake,
Silent, stately egrets explore the silken floodplains
with solemn measured gait, screened by gentle grasses
rippling softly in the breeze.

Riverine splendours abound in the trees, cascading Mistletoe,
boughs of the Eucalypt, generous and welcoming,
dappled sunlight and shade of the mighty River Red Gum,
proud and chastely beautiful, even in the night.

The Galah and the Corella, and the Sulphur Crested Cockatoo,
may be unwelcome to some but their sightings
and the sounds of them gladden my heart.
Soaring kite, swift Peregrine, so clean and free,
Comorant, so patient, even philosophical,
waiting to dry your wings in the warmth of the sun.

Kookaburra greets the misty dawn and the gathering dusk
with the same strident, but treasured call.
Terracotta colours of the massive cliffs,
carved by the river on its way to the sea,
holding close their secret origins of earlier times.

I can’t recall the moment when
your precious lifeblood mingled with mine,
But I know with surety, that some day I will return.


Patricia Langford
Goldmine Cliffs,
Murray River
20 July 2000

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