Quiet Moments (rev)

(Formerly: In These Quiet Moments)

In these quiet moments before night
softens mountains of the South and
deflates clouds that float beneath
their peaks, the dying sun's rich, peach
glow deepens into gathering gloom.

There, where mists stretch a false
horizon between sea and land’s end
Aratika glides across the trackless
strait and winks out beyond Terawhiti.
Taputeranga Island looms up in the bay
beneath my windows, gathering grandeur
in shadows, commanding the bay
in a mysterious night.

It is light; night has passed in fitful sleep
and dawn greets the gulls cry as they circle
a softer countenanced island, fishing boats
point into the wind crawling a trance-like,
ripple-pattern across the bay. Day begins
a pastel glow behind the Heads, spreads
its cloudless scan to mountains which
stand impassively guarding the Strait.
© 1982, I.D. Carswell