Waking Up to Beauty

By Anne Hay

Poems are small individual vignettes. Each one telling a story and painting a picture.
Poetry is a special art form. People from all walks of life can express themselves and their thoughts through poetry.
Sometimes a memory triggers an emotion: if you like to write poetry, then there is no better way to express a moment in time than to write the words that give a poem life.
Poetry can be funny, it can be serious, it can be about love, it can be about sorrow. Poems can be about so much: about the sea, about rivers, about snow, and the warm glow in the fireplace, at home, in the deep mid-winter.
Poetry lets us feel the emotion and view the scene in our own minds, through the vision of the poet. Read on…

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Apr 29, 2022
• ISBN: 9781398475267

Anne Hay

Anne has had an interesting life. After completing her education in Australia and the UK, she returned to Australia, where she completed an RN nursing degree. She worked in Intensive Care, Emergency and Anaesthesiology departments, in various hospitals in Sydney, Australia. Then the call to travel came again, and she headed off on more adventures overseas. She worked at the Gibraltar Museum and sailed at the yacht club at every opportunity. She returned to England and worked at Chichester Hospital and Chichester Museum. This opened up a whole new world to her. At Chichester Museum, Anne helped work on two summer exhibitions: the first exhibition was on ‘Byzantium’; the second exhibition was called ‘Anglo Saxon England’. Specialists in these fields were brought in to work together with the curator to bring the exhibitions to fruition. Each exhibition was a great success, and enjoyed by the visiting public. During this time, Anne learned a lot of fascinating history and visited some interesting archaeological sites. A few years later, Anne worked in the Medical Center in Houston, Texas, and then in a pharmaceutical company in New Jersey, USA. In the course of her work, Anne met her future husband, Barry. They enjoyed many adventures into nature: kayaking, camping, skiing and hiking in the mountains. Anne and her husband later retired to France and enjoyed life close to the mountains and the vineyards of the Languedoc Roussillon region. Anne’s husband died in 2012. She now calls Australia home and is still close to the mountains and the sea.

Book preview

The Mountain’s Secrets

Many a hike took us into the woods,

Finding the lounge room of the forest floor;

Soft greens and tall tall trees,

The sunshine was dappled as it danced

Under the canopy, overhead.

We followed pathways made by wild boar

Or deer that were running from the

Hunter’s gun, and dogs that chased

And found the scent of the lair.

So much life was being lived under the canopy

In the cool mountain air.

Walking, we found the highest point

Where eagles soar in the morning mist,

A magical vista below.

We learned about geology too;

Old volcanoes had erupted long, long ago,

Leaving behind huge stones all around;

But we never unlocked the mystery of this time.

We never saw another soul, when we were

Hiking through the mountains high

Along the vista in the sky;

Where nature hid her wonders,

We stood and marvelled at it all.

We heard a cuckoo now and then

And found a brook down in the glen;

We tiptoed over the mossy bank,

Where the silvery water rushed

Over the rocks beneath.

Could this be a fairies’ glen?

Could they be living in this place?

Of greens and mossy stones

And ferns and silvery flowers; and

Waterfalls that fell.

We stepped outside the mountain

And locked the door behind;

We wanted to leave it untouched by us,

Except for our memories, that we keep,

We shall let the mountain sleep.

Our Planet, This Earth

What can we achieve for ourselves in this world?

And what can we bring to make sure

That we live our lives, with the utmost care

And love, for the place we call home?

We must nurture our land, the best that we can;

We must let nature take its course;

Let the trees grow high, right into the sky,

Let the rivers run their course.

The turquoise seas must stay clean and free

Of the garbage and plastics that pollute;

Man was given a special place on this earth,

And now it’s time to make sure

That we fight to keep our planet clean,

For the future we hold so dear.

The wildlife in the forests are but a

Hair’s breadth away from extinction;

Man must work to respect and make sure

That the forests are kept safe from the

Greed of others, who do not care.

Why can’t the animals be left alone, to roam in their natural space?

Man needs these great creatures to live on our planet;

We must diversify, and care and share

To help our climate to stabilise,

To make sure that the deserts get rain.

We need to put our heads together

To grow more trees, and farmers need to grow more wheat,

And thus sustain the human race.

Through good management in every land, we can help the waterways,

The oceans and the earth, through nurturing our planet,

This special Earth. And giving birth to new ideas,

So man and beast can live, and share this planet, and the same fresh air.

Clean air, from forests far and wide, will help

Sustain our countryside, our cities, and our planet Earth.

Remembering Another World

It wasn’t time to die, there was so much left to do.

Why did this burden of death creep into our lives?

Why oh! why did my love have to die?

We had days of sunshine and walks in the hills,

We had days of kayaking down rivers,

We had days of finding special new paths

As we walked beside the river.

We had days of climbing high up on the rocks,

And days of looking out over the vines;

We would walk through a vineyard and

Then through a forest, those days

Were the best days of mine.

The days that we loved and the days that we played

The days of our lives were just fine;

The days that went by, were all that we had

Those days we were happy, not sad.

Thank goodness we had those special days,

Thank goodness we loved while we could,

Thank goodness we loved the very same things;

Thank goodness we found love when we did.

Day after day, on those special days

We laughed and we sang and were happy;

Day after day, was all that we had,

And we loved all those days forever.

The days we spent in nature, were always so special,

We loved the river sound as we kayaked down

And saw the beauty of the trees around;

The birds that sang, and the ripples that rang over the river floor.

Just once more, the day was ours

As the moon climbed high in the campfire glow.

My love and