A strong physical and emotional symbiotic relationship with landscape:
Spiritual Song of the Aborigine
I am a child of the Dreamtime People
Part of this Land, like the gnarled gumtree
I am the river, softly singing
Chanting our songs on my way to the sea (See Poem By Hyllus Maris
Landscape reflects my fears and phobias
Discord in Childhood by D.H. Lawrence
Outside the house an ash-tree hung its terrible whips,
……
The other voice in a silence of blood, ‘neath the noise of the ash.
And Robert Frost: Mending the Wall
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
…..
And he likes having thought of it so well He says again, “Good fences make good neighbors.”
See Poem by Robert Frost
See comments on Mending the Wall
Uluru by Eva Johnson
Isolated rock
that stands in silence
caress the earth
while waters of tears
Dreamtime Almost Gone by Lorraine Mafi Williams
“Sit beside the sacred sites
Look deep into the hills
carve the knowledge in your hearts, my sons
for the Dreamtime’s almost gone.”
IN, “Dreamtime Almost Gone”, the indigenous poet, Lorraine Mafi Williams, reflects upon the meaning of Uluru and the knowledge carved deep into its ancient red rock. For the aborigines, Uluru conceals stories of the ancient dream time when the intelligent snake from the higher spirit realm, the Mother and Father of all forms of life, weaved its fertility magic. The poet asks the younger indigenous people, to “sit beside the sacred sites”, to “look deep into the hills” and to “carve the knowledge in your hearts, my sons”.
Homo Suburbiensis For Craig McGregor
One constant in a world of variables
— A man alone in the evening in his patch of vegetables,
and all the things he takes down with him there
Where the easement runs along the back fence and the air
smells of tomato-vines, and the hoarse rasping tendrils
of pumpkin flourish clumsy whips and their foliage sprawls
See Bruce Dawe’s Poem
- In Bruce Dawe’s poem, Homo Suburbiensis, The man finds a harmonious place to belong in his vegetable patch. There he can enjoy some “constancy”; he is alone with his thoughts, static and unchanging, while the world outside continues its usual pace; it is his “patch” – his territory – a place where he can vent his frustrations, where has total control, with things he has grown himself. The garden is a place for contemplation and meditation. It is a place that complements man’s need to be alone and to get in tune with his inner being.
- The poem celebrates man doing ordinary things, but becoming alive through his affinity and bonds with nature.
- The garden represents the mind – chaotic when wild, but when structured, it is productive, beautiful and joyous.
- Think about your favourite place or your grandparents’.
The road not taken by Robert Frost
TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
See Robert Frost’s poem
We often project our own fears and anxieties onto the world around us and choose to see our landscapes as dark, desperate and violent. OR
Our view of our physical surroundings often reflects our anxieties, fears and anger. or
We often imagine or interpret the physical landscape in ways that reflect our moods, sensitivities, fears, phobias and anxieties… D H Lawrence’s poem, Kinsella
The young child narrator in D.H. Lawrence’s poem, …, focuses on the violent storm that … It metaphorically depicts the discord that swirls between the two warring parents inside the house. There are violent similarities between inner and outer, and between the physical and emotional landscapes that capture the narrator’s frame of mind.
Robert Frost:
The neighbour seeks to erect walls as a metaphoric reflection of his narrow-minded territorial and authoritarian view of the world. He feels more secure and comfortable if the fence is properly erected. Contrastingly, the narrator challenges his view and believes that there is no practical need for a fence and prefers to enjoy a landscape that is not hemmed in by narrow-minded territorial ideas about ownership and conquest.
Spiritual Song
The narrator reflects the aboriginal world view which recognises a personal symbiotic and intuitive closeness with the land. The aborigines see human life as an extension of the physical landscape; the poet personifies landscape to reflect this closeness and to reflect their necessary place in the world quotes… – the relationship si about honour and respect.. . she also captures the sense of physical continuity between the red rock and the “red blood” flowing through my veins. (their natural and physical relationships are, in turn, reflected in their spiritual vision.. . The physical relationship also closely reflects their spiritual needs as she reflects on the spirit as the “dust devils”.
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