Re: Poetry please.

Thanks Robert. Don't know about the branches growing into the nests, but they do seem to last a long time before they disintegrate.

Re: Poetry please.

I am a big fan of Banjo Patterson (wrote Waltzing Matilda and The Man From Snowy River) but my favourites are ones like this:

Clancy of the Overflow

I had written him a letter which I had, for want of better,
Knowledge, sent to where I met him down the Lachlan, years ago,
He was shearing when I knew him, so I sent the letter to him,
Just on spec, addressed as follows, “Clancy, of The Overflow”.

And an answer came directed in a writing unexpected,
(And I think the same was written with a thumb-nail dipped in tar)
’Twas his shearing mate who wrote it, and verbatim I will quote it:
“Clancy’s gone to Queensland droving, and we don’t know where he are.”

In my wild erratic fancy visions come to me of Clancy
Gone a-droving “down the Cooper” where the Western drovers go;
As the stock are slowly stringing, Clancy rides behind them singing,
For the drover’s life has pleasures that the townsfolk never know.

And the bush hath friends to meet him, and their kindly voices greet him
In the murmur of the breezes and the river on its bars,
And he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended,
And at night the wond’rous glory of the everlasting stars.

I am sitting in my dingy little office, where a stingy
Ray of sunlight struggles feebly down between the houses tall,
And the foetid air and gritty of the dusty, dirty city
Through the open window floating, spreads its foulness over all.

And in place of lowing cattle, I can hear the fiendish rattle
Of the tramways and the buses making hurry down the street,
And the language uninviting of the gutter children fighting,
Comes fitfully and faintly through the ceaseless tramp of feet.

And the hurrying people daunt me, and their pallid faces haunt me
As they shoulder one another in their rush and nervous haste,
With their eager eyes and greedy, and their stunted forms and weedy,
For townsfolk have no time to grow, they have no time to waste.

And I somehow rather fancy that I’d like to change with Clancy,
Like to take a turn at droving where the seasons come and go,
While he faced the round eternal of the cash-book and the journal —
But I doubt he’d suit the office, Clancy, of The Overflow.

Re: Poetry please.

Thank-you Bruce.
This thread is one of my favourites.

Re: Poetry please.

Nice one Bruce. I can picture that man in the city longing to be out in the bush like Clancy.

Re: Poetry please.

A little one

As heads of our family we’re eager to be
Asked out to dinner, lunch or high tea
Now last Sunday was a high spot for us
Better than upstairs at the front of a bus

Re: Poetry please.

My Country

The love of field and coppice,
Of green and shaded lanes.
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins,
Strong love of grey-blue distance
Brown streams and soft dim skies
I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me!

A stark white ring-barked forest
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon.
Green tangle of the brushes,
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops
And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When sick at heart, around us,
We see the cattle die-
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady, soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow Gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back threefold-
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land-
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand-
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.

Dorothea Mackellar

Re: Poetry please.

"I Am Australian"

I came from the Dreamtime
From the dusty red soil plains
I am the ancient heart
The keeper of the flame
I stood upon the rocky shore
I watched the tall ships come
For forty thousand years I've been the first Australian

I came upon the prison ships
Bound down by iron chains
I fought the land
Endured the lash
And waited for the rains
I'm a settler
I'm a farmer's wife
On a dry and barren run
A convict then a free man
I became Australian

I'm a daughter of a digger
Who sought the mother lode
The girl became a woman
On the long and dusty road
I'm a child of her Depression
I saw the good times come
I'm a bushy, I'm a battler
I am Australian

We are one
But we are many
And from all the lands on earth we come
We'll share a dream
And sing with one voice
I am, you are, we are Australian

I'm a teller of stories
I'm a singer of songs
I am Albert Namatjira
And I paint the ghostly gums
I'm Clancy on his horse
I'm Ned Kelly on the run
I'm the one who waltzed Matilda
I am Australian

I'm the hot wind from the desert
I'm the black soil of the plain
I'm the mountains and the valleys
I'm the drought and flooding rains
I am the rock
I am the sky
The rivers when they run
The spirit of this great land
I am Australian

We are one
But we are many
And from all the lands on earth we come
We'll share a dream
And sing with one voice
I am, you are, we are Australian

We are one
But we are many
And from all the lands on earth we come
We'll share a dream
And sing with one voice
I am, you are
We are Australian

I am, you are
We are Australian




the SEEKERS

Re: Poetry please.

"Shine On Through"

Oh my love
I have cursed the stars above
That lead my heart to you
But as hard as I try
Still my love will not die
And the stars still shine on through
And the stars still shine on through

Oh my dear
Now this ship's too hard to steer
The tide has turned, turned on you
I have been through the lies
That I've seen in your eyes
But the truth still shines on through
But the truth it still shines, shines on through

So shine, shine on through the days we have to fill
Though we took our love so daringly
And gave it up uncaringly
There are feelings left not even we can kill

Oh my friend
So at last we reach the end
The lights go down on cue
I have wasted my time
But it tasted oh so fine
That my love still shines, shines on through
And my love still shines, shines on you.

Elton John

Re: Poetry please.

That is becoming Australia's unofficial anthem. It would not surprise me if it eventually does become our National Anthem and replaces the dirge that we have at present - it being only marginally better than the one it replaced - yours.

Re: Poetry please.

Thank-you for your posts.

Jeramy Hale Jul 2010
Fridays
I'm so in love with Fridays Fridays Fridays
I'm so in love with Fridays
yeah hipper cooler Fridays
ya gotta love them Fridays
yum yum yummy Fridays
rubbin tummy Fridays
slappin ass-in Fridays
get your giggle Fridays
all together Fridays
I'm so in love with Fridays
Fridays Fridays

ack Ghaven Dec 2014
Fridays Like They Used to Be
Stumble in at 3AM
I'm drunk again
Kick shoes off at the door
Drop my keys on the floor
Fumble for the lights
Man I miss Friday nights
Crashing on the couch in my clothes
Being somebody that no one knows