That time of year has come when pines draw shadows
long on the sand of late afternoon. Smooth
and cool as terracotta beneath my feet.
I walk the curved spit to reach the headland,
as I do each day to quieten thoughts that run
too fast, that dart like minnows. Looking up,
I see squat slabs of stone, sombre as Lewis
Chessmen. A sea eagle glides on vast wings.
A squall offshore whips chaos and stirs white caps.
But here at the tide’s edge, water spills
and sweeps neat lines of foam, crosshatching the shore,
where a rogue wave rushes my ankles, startling
me with its strength. I stand and wait for the ebb
to soften the surge and rinse my bare feet clean
Barrenjoey means ‘young kangaroo’ in local Garigal language.
It is a headland at Palm Beach on the northern beaches of Sydney, Australia.
Alison Gorman is a poet based on the northern beaches of Sydney, Australia. Her poetry has been published in a number of Australian journals including Meanjin, Cordite Poetry Review, Contrapasso and Southerly and in 2016 she won the Dorothy Porter poetry prize. She has a poem published in a forthcoming issue of Popshot Quarterly. Alison holds a Masters of Creative Writing from the University of Sydney and teaches creative writing to children at Inkling Writing Studio which she founded in 2018.
More work by Alison Gorman
Tel: 028 7126 6946
Email: hueditor@theverbal.co
Verbal, Stable Lane and Mall Wall, Bishop Street Within, Derry/Londonderry, BT48 6PU
companyCopyright © 2026 Honest Ulsterman