Helen Sheil (2017)
While there are other grand stories
that originated in humble
surroundings
triggered in our memory
by images of a bright star
in a clear sky.
They were from another time.
So the invitation to make our way
to Josie’s camp on her mother’s
bee farm, to speak aloud
thoughts held silently in our hearts
created an opportunity
for another grand story of hope
to emerge in the quiet
of the small clearing
between the highway and the lake
that many have heard about
but like the mythical Camelot
few have entered.
Listening to a snippet of Maisie
Byrne’s poems of life on Lake Tyers
in the 1930’s
written in pencil,
on lined pages
held together with a nappy pin
you glimpse a life surrounded
by beauty and abundant happiness.
(extract)
So listen and I’ll tell you
Of the bush I love so well
And all the pleasures round about
The spot in which I dwell.
A land of wide horizons
Of mountains plain and lake
There’s pleasures here for all of you
Whichever way you take.
There’s bushland all around us
So friendly and so green
I’d like to tell you all about
The wonders I have seen
For the bush is full of interest
For those with eyes to see
There’s living things hide in the scrub
And almost every tree.
Maisie offers such a
different
view to that of ‘legendary’ bush
Poets who wrote of
families battling to clear trees
struggling with drought, fires and
flies, the hardship, heartbreak and
loneliness, especially for women.
Maisie’s daughter, Josephine Jakobi
Has eye’s to see the beauty and the
creativity to map the complexity
of life in the lake we love.
Her unique style
a Josephication
of the world around her
is immediately recognizable.
Her art, paying attention to the
cycle of seasons
the length of days relating to
the ebb and flow of salt and fresh
water mingling is stitched, inked
and embossed onto linen immersed
for weeks in the lake to impregnate
the fabric with qualities of the
constantly halocline.
A visit to the bee farm
is an invitation to immerse ourselves
in this time and place
to bee present.
To re-connect
with nature’s gallery of life.