Saturday 21 December 2013

Calling All Angels



he sailed somewhere
one Saturday afternoon

I was just a child and watched
many cars arrive
headlights on

strange to see 
streams of light
in light

he sailed somewhere
and I drifted
in seas 
of silence

lonely silence

in high school years
I often dreamed beyond the classroom window
where there was a dam
the place where my father
often used to walk
my brother and I
it was all bush land round the dam in those days
and my dad gave us a regular taste of
a feeling for
other lives

but I had not been there
since the day of lights
I just watched
from the classroom
afar

till one day
I saw a white horse by the dam
standing quietly
beneath a tree
I watched 
sensing a connection with

 lonely beauty

it became a habit
each day 
seeking the presence of
that white horse
sometimes he stayed awhile
sometimes he just wandered by
but always
I felt
connected

I left high school
thinking no more of
that white horse

not till I moved to Tasmania

there was a dam on my property

and a white horse 
a lone white horse
roamed a farm
down the road

the dam was mine
the horse was not

suddenly
the white horse
disappeared

and not long afterwards
the dam was not mine either

I left Tasmania
my life broken

grudgingly 
I moved to Melbourne
a need for money breeds
drastic action

and I lived in a small, not so pretty 
rented
weatherboard house

not far from a main road


Blackburn was
hardly a place to find
grazing 
white horses

but the road was called Whitehorse Road
in the region of
Whitehorse Council

for the first time
in some years
I smiled freely
again

and now
I live on the Mornington Peninsula

I journey to and from my school where I teach
past farmlands
and many dams
and many

white horses

yes
they appear and disappear 
like good seasons and bad
but I have learnt to accept that
my journey
my pathway 
is marked by
signs
special signs

the presence of

my angel
my white horse
my father



Linking to:
Imaginary Garden with Real Toads - Calling All Angels

9 comments:

Hannah said...

Your summation of closing lines pulls this together tightly...goosebumps...I love that this is your sign-story-angel and I'm honored that you shared it with us...Thank you.

Susie Clevenger said...

My, this pulls at my heart strings. I hear my father in the wind chimes he made...So beautiful

Helen said...

This is an incredibly lovely story poem.

Ella said...

Beautifully written! I am touched and I too look and find signs~ Your story paints the image so well-lovely poem! This does tug and remind! Thank you~

Susan said...

You have several poems tied into this heart filling story. Seems our guardians are there always though it takes time for us to recognize them. I felt most the teenage girl seeing through the window (WOW) and the Whitehorse location, and the end which is no end. Thank you so much.

Kerry O'Connor said...

What an amazing story, Gemma. It has left me quite misty-eyed.

Sherry Blue Sky said...

What an absolutely beautiful, heartfelt and uplifting story. I love how the white horse has followed you through the years. I truly love this, Gemma.

Fireblossom said...

You made me cry with this. Good guys always have white horses, don't they?

Anonymous said...

What a sweet, honest, beautiful and telling story here, about how the beautiful arrives to save us and then goes away, only to return again when we need it, like a father's hand that never ceases to reach for ours and lead us through the next door. Loved it, loved it.

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