“In this place of darkness and malediction we can but stand in awe and remember its stateless, faceless and nameless victims. Close your eyes and look: endless nocturnal processions are converging here, and here it is always night. Here heaven and earth are on fire.” — Elie Wiesel
A reminder that even in a world shadowed by sorrow, the night still offers its quieter lights — small, celestial gestures that help us keep looking up.
Two Heavenly Lights
I’m a sucker for a crescent moon, and there below his silver spoon
on this cloudy wintry night I espied another bright light —
a vision unexpectedly imbued, sidling toward the glowing moon.
Venus, elegantly blushing with attractiveness, and the moon beaming with handsomeness —
two twinkling heavenly lights coyly conversing through the veil of night.
Chocolates are delightfully delicious … wars are deadly and destructive … Above the valley, a white-feathered messenger rises — reminding us how fragile peace can be
Yesterday we visited the Moorabool Valley Chocolate Café for coffee and cake, and the moment brought this poem back to me — a piece I wrote in August 2018, when a simple liquor chocolate stirred memories, questions, and the ache of a world still at war.
Eating Chocolates And Watching Wars (Revised)
Hungrily, I’m eating a liquor chocolate — a selfish heavenly delight, arousing my old mind’s senses.
I wonder what she would be thinking, looking down from the stars through her sensitive olive eyes — her everlasting smile, her gracious courage, her generous heart, her forgiving soul, her love for me and you.
I wonder what she would be thinking, seeing these futile, bloody wars through her compassionate olive eyes — the dead and maimed, the millions of shuffling homeless, the distraught, broken families, the crying children locked in sheds, the desperate refugees with no beds.
I wonder what she would be thinking while she preciously holds the last white dove, observing these senseless wars that never ever ends.
And for the song that holds the cracks and the light, here is Leonard Cohen’s Anthem — offered to a world where the last white dove may never fly free again.
A moonlit whisper drifts across the strawberry field, where the night’s small wonders gather for their secret celebration.
A Magical Mushroom Party
Did you hear — on the grapevine about the magic mushroom party? The local fungi have peacefully impregnated the neighbourhood strawberry field and all moonlit buttons are welcome. Grab an umbrella and your gumboots, bring your own spores and a watering can.
…join the cheery clan, there’s plenty of toadstools, and the soirée’s fairy rings of our magical and mysterious land have conjured up the old Beatles band.
And as the fairy rings keep peacefully humming, the old songs rise again beneath the glowing caps of night.
This morning’s winter sun momentarily slipped through the clouds just long enough to set the eucalyptus leaves shimmering.
The Sun’s Winter Glow
Mother Nature’s wryly smiling, silently proud there above the lingering dark clouds. The waning winter sun shyly glows, and its diffused light knows how to make the eucalyptus leaves sparkle during the season’s arctic cycle.
A stillness to sit with, as the day folds into the deeper quiet where winter light lingers.
In keeping with this week’s moon theme, today’s Throwback Friday poem drifts back to November 2024, when the moon seemed to whisper of endurance and flight. Drawn from Chapter 6 of Time Hears No Sound, Travel and Life: Time Flies — it traces the solitary courage of a seagull chasing horizons.
Under the full moon’s watch, the journey continues — across water, memory, and time.
Full Moon Rising
I am an aging seagull And I must be out of my skull
Thinking that I’m fit enough To fly further than the bluff
No matter, there is a full moon To guide me across this barren dune
My journey is a lonely one But I’m not to be outdone
I know there is another blue ocean Beyond this World’s wavering horizon
And under this quiet moon, the journey keeps unfolding — one small, steady heartbeat at a time.
Ivor.Plumber/Poet 