Afternoon

One of the parting gifts I received from the McGowan family when I left Wagga Wagga on July 21 was a copy of Rod Cameron’s book of reflections, prayers, and poetry, entitled Karingal: A Search for Australian Spirituality.

A member of the Society of St. Paul, Rod Cameron has spent over forty years exploring in unison with various Australian Aboriginal communities, the meaning of the Aboriginal concept of the Dreaming, or Dreamtime. Such a collaborative endeavour has convinced him that the coming together of the Dreamtime and Christianity is of great historical significance and has the potential to deeply enrich Australian spirituality. It will, he says, “enable us all to live as friends in the Karingal (Happy Camp)”.

Following is a poem by Rod Cameron entitled “Afternoon.” Accompanying this poem are photographs I took at North Brother Mountain, Laurieton, on Sunday, August 6, 2006.



Afternoon
By Rod Cameron

There is a mystic depth to afternoon,
a silence that is quiet and quieter still.
Whisperings of softest sounds are heard
till they in turn seem loud and fade away
before the advent of an undertone
so delicate, so spiritual, so frail
that its light accents are more thought than heard.

But there is more living in this stillness now
than looms in all the bustle of mid-morn.
The senses are acute and tightly strained
like harp strings that will sing to slightest touch.

All nature waits with strange intensity
as every creature breathes attention now
to something deeper, higher than itself.