The death of giants

Poem and painting by Geoff Wilmshurst


Dark images

Black memories

The haunting sounds of rushing water

Echoing in dark chasms

Recalling the past
 

The sun dappled through the leaves

Throwing patterns across moss covered rocks

The sounds of the forest alive

lush - cool - life Intermingled with falling water

Quiet - dark ethereal worlds

The place of fairytales

Fireflies illuminating the rocks and trees at night

Confirming the mysteries in time
 

the tranquility has been shattered

The hand of man intrudes

The dragon awakes

Sounds and smells not natural

Stygian horrors awoken

Sounds and smells of distillate and oil

Pristine air now fouled with lust and terror

Yellow monsters amongst the lush green

Ripping out the life-force of the natural world

The bush cannot cry out

The only sounds harsh

High pitched motors of destruction 

The crashing of limbs

the low thud of death on the ferns

As giants fall

Fragility and colour now decimated

Red - orange- then black

The colour of death overwhelms
 

The guardians of the forest are now lost

Unable to resist the irresistible

Delicate ferns and mighty trees vaporised

The giants have fallen - unable to fight the terror

Around them the soft forest decimated

What is not plowed under is burnt

Death on many levels

The onslaught is relentless and thorough
 

Ash layers smothering and mounding on the ground

The heat unbearable - unstoppable

Animals terrified, escaping down to the deep dark caves

Those too slow - gone in a flash of pain

Those left - remain shattered

Wandering in distressed silence

wandering the ruins of their former life

Around them only destruction
 

Ancient trees born in cool mountain valleys

Now gone

leaving only memories

black - dead- hollow hulks

Where once majestic trunks reached to the sky

Alongside cool, clear water

Now only stumps of charcoal and mounds of ash

The ground ripped apart

Shattered corpses left laying silent

on the banks of dirty, cluttered streams

Or amongst gaping wounds of soil
 

But life is resilient

It only requires time

But not the time recorded on machines

Clock time is transitory

Rather,

Real time as recorded in ages

not the days and years of man

Ages that will outlast man and his machines

The forests will return

The lush valleys will regrow

The animals will bring back the sounds of life

The giants however, will take longer if at all
 

The desecrated lands dead and dying now

The grieving voices of the elders heard

Sounds in the mists across dead land

Ghostly wailing in the valleys and across mountain tops

But slowly the bush will regenerate
 

The green will replace the grey

Life will return to the mountains

To the now quiet - grieving valleys and bare rocky hills

The vibrant sounds of nature and life

Will be heard again

Man is a short term species and nature will return

After the mines and clear fell

Cycles of time moving slowly will come back

Nature will return

Reclaiming its own

Renewing the past

The death of the giants mourned

But new life resilient to take their place


Dr Geoff Wilmshurst spent 40 years as a professional teacher in disability education. He now spends his time travelling , writing and painting, and enjoying life with his wife Lorraine. He lives in the Blue Mountains in NSW, and finds inspiration for his work in its environment and that of similar places such as Tasmania and New Zealand. He hopes through art and poetry to connect with others, to make a positive difference in their lives, and to share the experience of what it means to be human and part of the natural world.

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