Run To The Hills
May 1985
From Meg’s assembled poems “Poetry: Streams of Cool Water”

Once
February 1994
From Meg’s assembled poems “Poetry: Streams of Cool Water”

Run to the Hills

they dropped me off
on the main highway
alpine desert land
still telling me
I was crazy
going there
by myself
at this time of year
Maybe I am
all I know
is if I don’t’ go
I really will
go crazy
I have to go
there’s nothing else
I can do
I can’t think
I can’t cry
I can’t sleep
I can’t write

I soon settled
into the comfortable rhythm
of one foot
in front of the other
not far along the track
I heard it
maybe it was more
what I didn’t hear
it was quiet
there was a settled stillness
aware of nothing
stirring
except the dust
under my feet
I could feel
the life
begins to rise up
inside me

not much further along
my heart knew a sound
before my ears caught it
the rushing of
a mountain stream
I ran to the water’s edge
it running beside me
I stood there
and let the hushing
sound wash over me
around me, though me
felt months of longing
weeks of tension
anxious days
and tormented nights
drain away from me
as I knelt and drank
before
walking further
into the bush
nearer the mountains
I am here
I am
alive!

once

once I ran
following
tracks like this

the dry fawn earth
the sea rushing
beside me
the wind in the
trees

once I ran
whenever I would
once

today
very slowly
with sticks
up the hill steps
to see the view
and then
I want to lie down
(at home)
in bed

listen
don’t cry
once i ran
i did
will I ever again?
it doesn’t really matter
once I did
free with the wind
remember?

today
i did drive here
i did
come on the ferry
still got my sea legs
i discovered
i did walk up
these steps
i can see the trees. sea
sitting under
some cabbage trees
see the dusty dirt
dry grass
salty water

remember this
when i am
in my bed
and my spirit mind
runs free
with the wind.