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Author's abstract: Poetic images retain the flesh and aroma of experience; memorable images dramatise movements to identity, empowerment and the righting of wrongs. Judith Wright uses metaphors of the bud, flame tree growth, compass heart, ageless crimson rose, rising sap, implacable heart, and "lovers who share one mind" to express human and cosmic yearning for fufillment or salvation. In her poems we hear the great mystery of life in the dynamic interdependence of waterfall, tree ferns and mountain gum. Judith Wright's metaphysical connections grow from these observations upon the lives of various trees. Her ethical imperatives, her celebrations of patient waiting and her admiration of nature's abundance and beauty in these poems continue to ignite theological reflections for us today.
