First poem

Dusk over Earth
written in 1969-1973


The parting from Day into night


Long shadows, finger like, stretch stealthily as a long dark glove, toward the eastern horizon
Covering the land with nightly shroud, stealing away all evidence of sunlight 
Awake oh owl and bats of the forest. Join the nocturnal hordes in play
A twilight zone of silence prevails upon this dark velvet side of the earth
For a time left for a distant howling dog, a passing train, the evening wind whistling through the telephone lines.


Trickling streams bubbling over rocks, even crashing waves become louder, closer...
distinct fibers of sound filter through the soft silent corridors of night, resting upon the ears of a solitary figure.


He stands gazing at the tall mountain peaks, which just a short while ago were clothed in brilliant robes of purple, tingled with white and gold. 
Now they take on a more sinister structure  with the absence of light, a towering black wave poised, ready to roll across the land below like  gigantic storm clouds about to break through


Trees and shrubs, vivid and pleasant in the light of day, now become shapeless and flat, almost obscure against a dark background


Night has arrived 


My dad wrote this when he had first stepped off the boat headed for new zealand in the late 1960's and observed kaikoura his first port of call.