I Hear the Ants Breathing

This poem appears in Voice of a Voyage, published by Sunstone Press. It’s one of my favorites. I wrote it in Australia during our circumnavigation after listening to a talk by an Aboriginal elder and learning more about their culture at Uluru and other sites in central Australia.

I Hear the Ants Breathing

You walk out into the bush; oh, it’s beautiful! You can actually hear the ants breathing.

Aboriginal Noongar Elder, Australia, 2011

I pause in the openness of the earth
to hear the ants breathing.
I watch my brother, koala,
dozing in the eucalyptus,
what that fella does best.
I move slowly, drawn by threads
of power, unbreakable
by wire fences, railroad tracks, power lines,
coal diggers. Unbreakable, I sing
these Songlines, this path I walk
is sacred, I have known it for centuries,
through ancestors I never saw.

I pause to hear the ants breathing.

This is my strength.

Ancient Aboriginal drawing

For more information about Aboriginal culture see my Voice of a Voyage blog listed on my website for a current post.