To the seas edge, for the first time, I leapt from my fathers arms And was caught by a wave and rolled Like a doll among rattling shells; And I seem to remember my father Fully clothed, still streaming with water Half comforting, half angry. And indeed I remember believing As a child, I could walk on water The next wave, the next wave It was only a matter of balance. On what floor are they borne, These memories of early childhood Iridescent, fugitive As light in a sea-wet shell, While we stand, two friends of middle ages, By your parents grave in silence Among avenues of the dead With their cadences of trees, Marble and granite parting The quick of autumn grasses. We have the wholeness of this day To share as we will between us. This morning I saw in your garden Fine pumpkins grown on a trellis So it seemed that the vines were rising To flourish the fruits of earth Above their humble station In airy defiance of nature - a parable of myself, a skinful of elements climbing from earth to the fastness of light; now come to that time of life when our bones begin to wear us, to settle our flesh in final shape as the drying face of land rose out of earths seamless waters I dreamed once, long ago, That we walked among day-bright flowers To a bench in the Brisbane gardens With a pitcher of water between us, And stayed for a whole day Talking, and drinking the water. Then, as night fell, you said There is still some water left over. We have one day, only one, But more than enough to refresh us. At your side among the graves I think of death no more Than when, secure in my fathers arms, I laughed at a hollowed pumpkin With candle flame for eyesight,
And when I am seized at last
And rolled in one grinding race Of dreams, pain and memories, love and grief, From which no hand will save me, The peace of this day will shine Like light on the face of the waters That bear me away for ever.