Mountain Forest
22 December 2020
JIMMY AWAGL
The tropical rainforest
Stretching up the slope
Tree tops shrouded in cloud
Offering a misty canopy
Drifting through the leaves
The sun’s descending rays
Spreading their radiant fingers
Touching the hovering vapour
Flaring before us in a golden spray
Blinding our eyes in a rainbow spectrum
The sweet melody of dawn birds
Cascades as they sit atop the branches
In quest of fresh dew hanging on the leaves
To satiate these heavenly creatures
Of the forest, their natural home
Forest frogs croaking
Jungle cicadas shrieking
While nocturnal creatures
Have retired in a hollow to dream
Cassowaries kiss the dew of earth
Yet all the rays fail to penetrate
The wind does not spear through
Dew remains for all day long
Mist hovering overhead for hours
What a splendid mountain forest
The beautiful poetry behind the mountain but the further you climb you will reach heaven it self. Some mountains in Simbu province look similar. This looks like your own Yongomugl mountains and at the far end where Keith Jacksons got lost in the caves in the 1960s.
Posted by: Philip Kai Morre | 04 March 2021 at 09:28 PM
Hi Jimmy - I trust you are in good health and still making the ink flow.
Your poem had the sound of a proud villager talking to a visitor.
It interested me to hear it in Tok Pisin, hence my translation.
I would like to include your poem alongside my translation in my new book collection.
Let me know if that's agreeable.
Posted by: Michael Dom | 04 March 2021 at 11:29 AM
Lindsay, your words are so much encouraging and fascinating to write each time. So much gratitude.
Posted by: Jimmy Awagl | 23 December 2020 at 06:49 AM
A celestial splendour alighted from above arriving every moment and with roots reaching into earthen elements.
Good one Jimmy
Posted by: Lindsay F Bond | 22 December 2020 at 04:13 PM