On the ice-edge of the hill
Gazing down grateful from verge of valley,
Coming in across country, a splinter of winter –

My feet hold fields.
And today, I saw the sun so wonderfully die,
The land turn black, crisp cutout trees clutching stricken stars,

My Ordnance Survey filled –
Dry moats overjumped, fallen houses seen, old stories
Stopped, pinned in place – “There is one surviving tower…”

Behind lie iron miles,
Silver-gilded soil and waiting woods, locked churches, ways
Silent and significant. The frost flakes flowers.

Now a great and universal chill –
Over unforgiving earth beasts bump their prize away,
Next year’s crops parade with glinting points, owls blink away hours.

– Derek Turer is the author of the novels A Modern Journey, Displacement and Sea Changes.

SydneyTrads is the web page of the Sydney Traditionalist Forum: an association of young professionals who form part of the Australian independent right (also known as “non-aligned right”).