Highly commended in the 2020 Dunedin UNESCO City of Literature Robert Burns Poetry Competition - unpublished poets section

Freedom at the Water’s Edge

This morning’s mist is low on the autumn harbour

and through the subdued light I can hear the sound of seabirds.

There is a heron stalking the shoreline near me –

his practiced eye sifts the ice water with

the tactile skill of a clothier testing silk,

his feet trace the sea’s edge with the delicate steps

of a ballet dancer –

a world as free as the incoming tide.

Then in the distance I see a fisherman

in his boat, the oars rhythmically stirring

the surface of the deeper water and a baited line

barely visible in the darkened sea’s drift.

And between the two fishermen I sense my own place

in the life of this day, where the vibrating forces of

nature around me are shimmering with the early tide

and dancing in the wake of the morning light.