Corn

Tags

Australian bush poetry, Australian traditional poetry, Bush Poetry, corn, Dairy farming in Queensland, maize, poem, poetry

Corn was a crop that each spring we would sow,
And in the autumn pick and bag each row.
Hard work it was, but then we didn’t mind;
We’d fill the shed with all that it could hold;
The cobs we’d husk and to a fine meal grind,
To feed the milkers through the winter cold.

But on reflection now I shake my head;
My father, bless his soul, is now long dead.
By sixty he was bent, his body worn,
From all that grinding toil and sweat and pain.
Now he is gone and so too is the corn,
And houses stand where once were fields of grain.

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Texas, Queensland

Tags

Australian bush poetry, Australian poet, poem, poetry, Texas Queensland

On western plains it’s wont to hide,
Beyond the weathered great divide.
Around the town the cattle graze,
As on the benches old men laze.
A river wanders through the land,
But it’s no mighty Rio Grande.
Yes Texas is a little town
Of no importance or renown.
It’s small; to greatness makes no claim,
But had its brief moment of fame.

{“The origin of the town’s name is generally regarded as a reference to a territorial dispute. The land in the area was first settled by the McDougall brothers, who found squatters there on returning from the goldfields. Once their legal right to the land was recognized, they named their property in honour of a rather more famous dispute between the United States and Mexico over territory in Texas, USA” – from Wikipedia}

Bougainville

Tags

Arawa, Australian bush poetry, Australian traditional poetry, Bougainville Copper Limited, Bougainville Island, Bougainville War, Panguna, poem, poetry

So quick to strike are the seeds of war
And the harvest reaped is bitter.
An emerald jewel with a fatal flaw,
For a speck of hatred lay at its core
For the progress made and the rule of law
When the treasure had lost its glitter.

How many of you in your graves lie dead?
How many lives were shattered?
The coral sands now stained with red,
And the villages flaming as you fled
From the smothering smoke as your country bled –
To the four winds you were scattered.

The mine in the mountains gone to waste
And the towns where we lived all burned.
Repent at leisure for deeds in haste
For rebellion’s cup is with poison laced
As men go mad as your blood they taste
And too late is the lesson learned.

Where are you John, and Ambrose too?
Did you survive this madness?
And Bilou and Tioni, are they with you?
Tell me, who are left of our old crew?
Though I have asked, none said, none knew;
Seems all that’s left is sadness.

And what of the island I first saw
With the Crown Prince Range enshrouded
With cloud that turned to the smoke of war
As the future burned and the bullets tore –
Can it be plucked from the devil’s maw?
Is its fate forever clouded?

Hector

Tags

Achilles, Anger of Achilles, Aphrodite, Apollo, Cypris, Death of Hector, Greek Mythology, Hector, Hector's body, Homer, Ilion, poem, poetry, Priam, sonnet, Spenserian sonnet, The Iliad, Trojan War, Troy

Achilles’ anger was unquenched, and so,
Three times each day he dragged him through the dirt.
Yet he remained untarnished head to toe –
No bloodied flesh, no broken bones, no hurt
Showed on unblemished skin. Still and inert,
As if asleep, and no decay was seen.
It seemed by unseen armour he was girt,
For Cypris and Apollo kept him clean.
His wounds they’d closed, since, bloody and obscene,
His body had been taken from the field.
He’d fallen to the bronze so bright and keen,
Yet now the cuts that killed him were all healed.
Achilles longed to tear him limb from limb,
Whilst grieving Priam dreamed of burning him.

{Pic – The Triumph of Achilles by Franz von Matsch. {from Wikipedia}}

Vespasian

Tags

Augustus, Australian poet, Australian traditional poetry, Caligula, Claudius, Galba, Nero, Otho, poem, poetry, Roman emperors, Tiberius, Vespasian, Vitellius

Augustus Caesar made the Empire great;
His rule was firm but not imperious.
For his successor Rome would have to wait,
But when he died, his stepson, old Tiberius,

Stepped up and for a while was somewhat fair –
Until Sejanus got the Emperor’s ear.
Soon he was smothered by his awful heir –
Caligula – a man all Rome would fear.

But when with stab-wounds he was duly riddled,
Poor Claudius tried hard to put things right.
As Rome was burning Emperor Nero fiddled;
The legions now were spoiling for a fight.

So Galba’s rise, it put an end to Nero,
As Nero with some help fell on his sword.
Then Galba fell to Otho – Rome’s new hero,
And Otho for a short time Rome adored;

Until Vitellius was crowned as Caesar;
Vitellius turned out to be bad news.
Next to be crowned was the Judea seizer;
Rose to the throne the conqueror of the Jews.

The Empire had endured the worst of men –
Vespasian would make Rome great again.

Australia Day

Tags

Australia Day, Australian poet, Australian traditional poetry, First fleet 1788, Formal poetry, poem, poetry, sonnet, Spenserian sonnet

Australia Day! Come on! Let’s celebrate
Our liberty, our fairness, rule of law.
The qualities that made Australia great:
The sacrifice in theatres of war;
The mateship that is at our nation’s core.
Turn deaf ears to the ones who would divide.
These weak but wily worriers – ignore.
They’ll crawl under the nearest rock and hide,
And from their lair cheer on the darker side;
Just leave them to their wild imaginings.
We love this land that stretches far and wide.
We benefit from all that progress brings.
Had not those ships sailed in in ’88,
Would such success have been this island’s fate?

Shaggy Ridge

Tags

7th Div AIF, Battle of Shaggy Ridge, Bird of Paradise, Crater Hill, Finisterre Range, Green Sniper's Pimple, Japanese 78th Infantry Regiment, Japanese mountain gun, John's Knoll, Kankiryo Saddle, New Guinea, Ramu Valley Campaign, Surinam River New Guinea, The Pimple, Trevor's Knoll, World War 2

“The Pimple” was the name they gave
This blasted peak – this lofty grave.
I stand where kunai grass grows tall;
I’m careful lest I slip and fall.
How could men on this summit fight?
How could they scale this soaring height
Whilst from its top, from mountain guns,
Poured out the wrath of Nippon’s sons?

The jungle’s grown back on one side
And on the other old scars hide
Beneath the grass; it clothes the graves,
As with the wind it weeps and waves.
But in my mind armed men I see;
A soldier’s voice, it speaks to me –
My father’s words, the lost years bridge,
Here on the spine of Shaggy Ridge.

Five hundred Japanese sleep here
And fifty diggers slumber near.
I wonder – was it worth the price?
I spy a Bird of Paradise.

{In memory of the men of the 7th Division, Australian Imperial Force, and the Battle of Shaggy Ridge, October 1943, and of Allen Noel O’Brien Sgt 7th Div AIF}

Alexandros

Tags

Alexander the Great, Alexandros, Australian traditional poetry, Death of Patroklas, Ecbatana, Formal poetry, Hepheistion, Patroklas, poem, poetry, Spenserian sonnet, The Illiad, Trojan War, Troy

The clouds obscure the sun in Babylon.
The young king lies grief-stricken on his bed.
His loyal friend, great general, is gone;
Hepheistion the warrior is dead.
The man who filled the Persian hordes with dread;
Cut down by fever – not by spear or bow.
No scimitar had slashed – no wound had bled.
No weapon, by man wielded, brought him low.
No armour bright, or shield, could foil a foe
That steals men’s lives unseen – a cunning thief.
But all these tears? Grave doubts take root and grow.
Why so unseemly is this show of grief?
You ask why? He’s Achilleus reborn!
And thus Patroklas he must duly mourn.

The Greek Mercenaries

Tags

Alexander the Great, Australian poet, Australian traditional poetry, Battle of the Granicus River, Greek Mercenaries, poem, poetry

In ranks they stood and made no sound;
The Persians were all dead –
The ones who chose to hold their ground;
The others had all fled.

For traitor’s lives nobody cared;
Dispatched they were to graves.
The few miraculously spared,
In chains they went as slaves.

Their masters promised gold and bread;
Their loyalty bought for loot.
Now harnessed to a plough or dead,
They’re paid in bitter fruit.

Alexander

Tags

Alexander the Great

My attempt at covering Alexander’s conquests in verse – finished for now, but a work in progress.

Alexander