I come here often to view the magic harbour

          the sky in changing light

leave behind my other life, the demands

          of the day

Choose this viewpoint high above the bay

          to watch the colours soften

          ― a Sydney sky at sunset

Today I climbed this scrubby headland

          to catch a gold-pink afternoon

          in autumn

Rose madder spreads my earthy palette

          tints the russet hills dipping

          to the sea

          – a mass of trees cast in shadow

Up close, I see wiry details, native grasses

          in tawny browns

          flattened by ocean gales

Paint the sunlight falling on glassy water

          as the river spreads

          ― sinks in a far-off haze

- after View in Sydney Harbour, before 1934, Margaret I Coulter 

© Brenda Saunders