A Poem: Night Hues

How often we find
on stepping out
that nature comes alongside to visit us.
Like the flitting piwakawaka
above my head tonight,
with its sweet tunes and deft movements.
Or the mellow sky changing hue
in a twilight deepening.
The shape of leaf forms
against the canvas of the night,
the white magnolia
and soft curl of rose.
The evening night-calls of the birds,
the first rising stars.
How often we live from the inside out,
when sometimes outside in
is how we appreciate the universe,
our place in it.
It does us good to feel quite small,
quite humbled and honoured,
that somehow here
the piwakawaka found us,
and the night sky changed from pink to blue.

Ana Lisa de Jong
Living Tree Poetry
March 2023