DANCING ON THE BRINK OF THE WORLD VOLUME XXI – DANCING

DANCING ON THE BRINK OF THE WORLD

VOLUME XXI – DANCING

 

 

Dancing, dancing, on we go

Wind-shaped branches

Formed in flow

A state of being

This I know

The ramblin’ way

Of Hespero

 

 

ABOVE: Composed in a churchyard cemetery, in the shade of a giant cypress, at St. Barnabas Anglican church in Prebbleton, Canterbury, NZ

 

What a special return.
New Zealand is a
faraway home, now,
for me, a place
that is dear and holds
a sense of belonging.
This is true, I know,
also for Hespero.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Witnessing the cypresses here in the southern hemisphere is hard to describe quickly; it’s a message that will take me some seasons to compose, and this is just the first glimpse of that culminative journey. To go back has stirred a kindling in me, and the spirit of Old Hespero, this grand story, may ride a fresh wave of momentum forward. On in process, so we go…

 

 

 

 

BELOW: Journal excerpt, from the road in coastal New Zealand, about one hour’s drive north of Dunedin, October 27, 2025:

I just sense a calling; I feel her, Hespero.  She awes me with her life, the vigor and majesty of it, again and again.  On the Otago peninsula, here on the South Island of New Zealand, she dances!  Cavorting on the wind unseen, in a place where the world, the very

land underfoot, appears to be falling into the sea at times.  I am captivated – this kind of spirit deserves a voice!  Or at the very least, a pencil and prose… no words could fully be enough, to capture a just sense of things; yet, I must try…

 

I’m so grateful that “macrocarpa” has found a true home, thousands of miles from Monterey, in a place that stays wet.  Otago has no annual drought like the California coast has, from May to October nary a drop, usually.  Back home, this seasonal pattern slows life down for most cypresses.  Here along the southwestern coast of the land of the Kiwis, life gets on with it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HESPERO’S MESSAGE

Composed at Sandymount Recreation Reserve, afternoon of October 27, 2025

 

 

Lay me down

 On the brink of the world

 A growing glory

 Will rest where I

 Hold

 The earth, by root

 Into my’st’ry unseen

 I trust you, to witness

 Share lessons you glean

 Of my ways

 Be my shepherd

 

 

STAY TUNED FOR FUTURE VOLUMES,

AND MORE CYPRESS STORIES FROM THE NEW ZEALAND COAST

 

⇒We invite you to join in the fun with us at Cypress Lawn Arboretum⇐