Blue Mountains Grotto

-for Paul and Sue Armstrong.
We leave the high panorama and descend steeply
past smooth-barked angopheras patterned in pink and grey. 
At the bottom a narrow grotto is embraced 
on three sides by curving sandstone cliffs.
We walk under a low overhang. 
A waterfall, drought-reduced, silvers past 
and ends with musical splash in a clear sandy pool.
Ranks of fern and moss step up the steepness.
Tall coachwoods climb to light in column straightness.
A little creek exits the pool down a rock-filled gully
and where the cliff face ends a single slanting beam 
splashes a patch of startling brilliance 
into the grotto’s deep green shade.

First published in Verse-Virtual July 19