please you people come sit with me

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william williams

please you people come sit with me

Post by william williams » Mon May 02, 2011 7:46 pm

Please Come Sit With Me ©

Please, you people come, sit quietly along with me as I try to tell about, the many wonders of our life the old way of life with its haunting ancient ways these were the words of our teacher, the old black man.
And so we sat there in the closing darkness of night ten separate souls, each not too sure what would happen as we sat on the logs rugs around our knees patiently waiting, as the old black man quietly coughed as he sometimes did bringing us all to the attention of his strange ways.
Suddenly, we heard his deep soft melodious voice.
What do you hear, he asked us?
Nothing, we all remarked, quietly he asked, what do you see.
Again, we answered the same as before.
Please, you people relax; let your ears hear what is there.
Suddenly some one remarked, I hear the chirping of a cricket, and the noise of a possum, playing in the trees.
I can hear a kangaroo bounding along the track someone else also said.
Suddenly, a small bird chirped when he was disturbed as a wombat rustled through the grass searching for food.
Aha! So you now hear, so, you are not alone anymore.
As we sat around overlooking this amphitheatre in the limestone hills, a strange sound greeted us Wrrhoorom, Wrrhoorom, Wrrhoorom
it was a strange eerie sound, one that we had never heard before.
The old man his shiny white teeth gleamed as he smiled.
What you see now, still nothing, he asked.
Quietly we answered; we have learnt that we must also look because now we can see bats dancing in the night sky the stars up in the sky, the mountain silhouettes and the ghostly shapes of the gum trees surrounding the hills.
Just then, the steady click, click, clicking sound started and a fire flared, throwing weird shadows around the nearby area.
The full moon, suddenly burst into light as though on call, bathing this strange, but attractive site with excitement, as native dancers now moved around the scene some looking like kangaroos, others like emus
The old man told us that the sound we first heard was the sound of a bullroarer calling to us to come.
The next sound was the talking music stick starting the stories.
Now you watch, I tell you of the dreamtime stories how they happen.
To the sound of talking music sticks and didgeridoos, he told how spirit people became rivers, birds, animals, and places, the scenes showed in pantomime how many things happened
The dreamtime stories also told how they. hunted for food their ways the old ways that told us how life began many, many years ago.

Written by Bill Williams Oct 05 ©

Neville Briggs
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Re: please you people come sit with me

Post by Neville Briggs » Mon May 02, 2011 8:11 pm

Too true Bill, we can look but not see, listen but not hear.

If we are going to style ouselves as poets I think we have to be seeing and hearing.
Neville
" Prose is description, poetry is presence " Les Murray.

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