Live Encounters Poetry & Writing August 2025
Fearing for the Forests, poems by Paul Williamson.
Fearing for the Forests
The great log in the park at Ross
is there to celebrate wood cutters
who took boisterous breaks in the town;
but the log was one of thousands
so it mourns the felling of native giants
for farming or timber.
Huon pine, Tasmanian oak, myrtle and blackwood fell.
The Central Highlands road before the lakes
is like a cemetery trail
through strewn and bleached remains of trees
some blackened by later bushfire.
Now logging is more controlled.
Much is from plantations.
We spend a night beside the working port of Burnie
in a rented apartment
amid nonstop industrial rumblings
while woodchip from logging trucks on highways
heaps and loads
and people fear for the breathing forests.
Hovering Together
After months of nesting
the two kestrels fly together
to hunt in glimmering sunlight
in the early autumn morning.
The hen and smaller male
ride the southerly breeze
hover close on honey wings
drift apart then drop in stages
to check for prey in long grass
perhaps to feed last fledglings
of the giving season
or just to share each other’s company
in the peaceful quiet.
Those Questions
Through duty and adventure
between joy and jokes
the surgery of time
wields crude blades
on minds and bodies that rouse
and carry on.
We heal or not in growth
that after youthful surges
seems mostly in the mind.
As one stage fades
the wounds from its struggles
move forward with us
part of training.
Half heard words
whisper behind daily noise
reemerge in calmer days.
The questions that recur
need answers.
Sometimes the answer is ‘Yes
I have done what was needed’.
Sometimes ‘That still waits’.
© Paul Williamson
Paul Williamson lives in Canberra. He has published poems on a range of topics in Australia, NZ, the US, UK, Canada and Japan. His collections include A Hint of Eden, Along the Forest Corridor, and Edge of Southern Bright, published by Ginninderra Press. His background is in Earth Sciences.