A Reverent Walk in the Bush
Hello beautiful,
This weekend I packed a picnic and went for a bushwalk on Gubbi Gubbi / Turrubul Country, to soothe my nervous system and spirit with some beautiful nature balm.
The natural landscape felt so inspiring and alive that I created a gentle spoken poem as I walked, softly describing of all the things I noticed … insects, birds, trees, water, shells, a snake, the breeze.
Here’s a recording of the poem as I created it, and written form below. I hope you enjoy <3
A reverent walk in the bush (Nature Still Sings)
A poem created on Gubbi Gubbi / Turrubul Country
I come to my favourite local bush track
Taking a mindful walk to connect with nature
And let off some steam
Notice sounds
There's a bird, high up in the tree
bending down and sideways to look at me, wondering what I'm doing
He’s joined by friend
I notice, insects, love insects
A giant moth flies past, the trees talk
They move with the wind
I see blue sky in negative space
through the leaves and trunks and branches
A piece of hair, crossing my eyes
Or maybe a spiderweb
A leaf falling and twirling
from the canopy
I walk and come to some shells
Some white sparkling shells in the sunlight
I pick one up and they're warm
filled with dirt
We're inland here
So, either somebody collected these long ago
Or perhaps recently, and bought them inland
Or perhaps, this used to be the sea as well
I come to a tree
The bottom half has been cut open and healed
in rounded edges of bark
in beautiful shades
Maroon-brown
and whites and creams
Shedding in some places
Old sheds caught in others
A spider with eight legs
Framed in a cross, is housed here
A small tree with a bug I've never seen
like a lady bird, but grey with white stripes.
A spider's web
Parachutes to the left in the breeze
Man-made objects
A worn golf ball from nearby, and a piece of plastic.
The insects still sing
I look slightly off track
Landscape changes here.
Just ahead I see 1000s and 1000s of trees
from thumb-width to human-trunk-width
Towering perhaps 10 meters high.
Small long thin shaped green leaves
and white trunks.
Paperbarks. Melaleucas
And the insects and birds still sing
I love coming out here, I love that I can discover new things
like memories of a child being an explorer
and seeing things for the first time,
wondering if I'm the only one who's ever stepped foot on this particular area.
While also having imaginative memories of
Indigenous Peoples once living here,
watching the beautiful shadows dance across all of the bark.
As whole thin trunks sway in the breeze
And the insects and birds still sing
I find my way back to track now
Ooh – a snake slithers across
Thin, like my thumb,
brown, gray, like the leaves below.
I let the Earth, the Country know what was coming.
And then I was here when I arrived,
I put my hands on the dirt and a tree trunk,
and let them know my intentions were, gentle, and kind.
I reach a new habitat here, and the trees look different.
There are islands of trees and debris
amongst vast areas of water, still water, flat
light brown with the sun shining through. Like honey.
I see dragon flies and
the insects are louder here,
and the trees with trunks thicker
move differently, than even 20 steps ago.
Such a pleasure … and I noticed some tears come to my eyes.
This … this place, is a true gift and I'm grateful to be here
and to witness the life that is around me,
that has so openly and yieldingly welcomed me into their space,
space of the trees and insects
and birds and animals and breeze
of fallen bark and branches and leaves
and trees that look like they're out of fairy tales
And the birds and insects, still sing
by Chrissy Foreman
P.S. Up for some nature-inspired art-making?
Come along to my Creative Nature Workshop at Drift Coffee Co., Scarborough.
Saturday 27th November, 6:00pm – 8:30pm
