MY LOST PLACE - MY COUNTRY

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Maureen K Clifford
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MY LOST PLACE - MY COUNTRY

Post by Maureen K Clifford » Tue May 03, 2011 8:57 am

Lost places – Are places ever lost if they remain in someone’s memory – someone’s heart?

My lost place is an old sheep property – my home for only five years but my Karma. The place that my heart and soul had been searching for – finally found, fleetingly enjoyed and now lost – to me.

Traprock country, harsh and dry in drought – but magnificent, beautiful and resplendent in good times. Cloaked in green, dotted with white wisps of Merino sheep, and the hard unyielding grey granite boulders that litter the slopes like a giant’s marbles. Above in the brilliant azure skies bronze Wedge tail Eagles fly high on the thermals, surveying the land below for rabbits or weak and new born lambs. Food for their survival and to feed their own young.

Towering crests of the hills are guarded by ring barked Gum trees that stand like sentinels pointing the way to who knows where. Cleared acres of open space, and hills covered in thick scrub. Deep gullies, with water holes edged with shivery grass beneath eroded granite cliffs, with steep snakelike tracks, wending down to the sweet waters below, tracks that have been worn over time by thousands of sheep, deer and feral goats on their daily trek to quench their thirsts.

Sundown National Park on the doorstep, with its heavily wooded slopes and granite boulders, hidden waterholes and secret tracks, and its mystic spiritual links with the Dreamtime. Hidden caves with rock paintings of roo and snake. The echoes faint – imagined – remembered, of tribal songs and native voices. The scar of the dingo fence, always visible winding its way through the trees – a useful landmark to head for if bushed.

The sonorous rumble of the ewes as they emerge wraithlike through the early morning mist, calling their lambs to go for their morning drink at the dam, leaving silver trails behind them in the dew drenched grass as they pass by in single file, nose to tail – heads nodding in time with their walking.

The rattle of gravel, a cloud of red dust and the rumble of wheels over the grid as a neighbour heads for town – always accompanied by the 'beep beep' of the horn or sometimes a shrill whistle as he passes by your place. Three days now and no other vehicle has passed your gate.

Roos – big greys keeping pace with the car along the roadside and then bounding with ease over the barbed wire fence and across the paddock. Cute pretty faced wallabies - small, dainty, sweet . They stand heads up; ears pricked watching your approach – then pound off into the scrub hell for leather seconds before you reach them.

Reality – Sadness – Despair as lambs are lost. Babies who had barely drawn breath killed by fox and pig and crow and eagle despite the best efforts to keep them all safe. Old ewes, weakened by drought and mud mired – eyes taken by crows – a bullet their last reward. A harsh country. Each death equating to dollars that are desperately needed.

The misery of losing a dog, a four legged mate.. Heartbreaking, but somewhat inevitable. Working dogs are worth two men. Without their willing and eager assistance no farmer can manage in this country. Controllers of the flock, guard dogs, loyal, loving and faithful companions. Sometimes your only Mate for days on end. Some never understand that snakes can kill. The curious succumb.

Wild pigs, (always a problem to farmers) fear nothing. They kill lambs and weakened sheep. Carrion eaters. Silent, stealthy and deadly killers. who flatten fences, root up good pasture, ruin fields of grain. They are cunning – smart enough to drop down and hide behind a fallen log until the hunter passes by, then spring up and run away, which is fair enough – the fight or flee syndrome. A smart dog will bail them until the farmer can dispatch them swiftly with a well aimed bullet. But many a game dog, either too cocky, too slow or not pig smart has been lost to these black bulldozers.

This is my lost place. My country. I grieve every day for her – but she lives forever in my heart.


Maureen Clifford ©

IF YOU LIKED THE YARN AND WANT TO SEE THE REAL DEAL CLICK HERE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A2UQIPGwoc
Last edited by Maureen K Clifford on Sat May 07, 2011 1:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Check out The Scribbly Bark Poets blog site here -
http://scribblybarkpoetry.blogspot.com.au/


I may not always succeed in making a difference, but I will go to my grave knowing I at least tried.

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Bob Pacey
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Re: MY LOST PLACE - MY COUNTRY

Post by Bob Pacey » Fri May 06, 2011 7:20 am

Maureen sounds like you hold this place special. The fact5 is we tend to keep these memories secret but I love the way you are willing to share. Close my eye's and I'm there.


Thanks again Bob
Last edited by Bob Pacey on Sat May 07, 2011 9:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
The purpose in life is to have fun.
After you grasp that everything else seems insignificant !!!

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Maureen K Clifford
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Location: Ipswich - Paul Pisasale country and home of the Ipswich Poetry Feast
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Re: MY LOST PLACE - MY COUNTRY

Post by Maureen K Clifford » Fri May 06, 2011 8:31 am

Bob I can't tell you how special...enough to say when I die I want my ashes scattered there. I was there for only five nearly six years before things went belly up in a 20 year relationship, and the property has now been sold and things have moved on. But somewhere out there is the spirit of my Pit Bull Khadizia who was killed by a pig and whose body we never found, and other dogs I loved are buried there. Samantha Jane our Wolfhound, Jessie Belle our Blue Heeler both guard the gate to the chook pen and little Ralph Patrick our red and tan Kelpie is buried over near the lamb pen.

I would have to say though brief it was those six years had more impact on my life and happiness than any other period of my life and the time spent there was without doubt the most memorable. I think I found myself there and I know I found my true home.
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Check out The Scribbly Bark Poets blog site here -
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I may not always succeed in making a difference, but I will go to my grave knowing I at least tried.

mummsie
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Re: MY LOST PLACE - MY COUNTRY

Post by mummsie » Fri May 06, 2011 9:10 am

Maureen, you have captured the spirit of the land in these beautifully chosen words, I can feel your heart is there. There are those special times and places in our lives that just seem to keep drawing us back, you obviously felt solace here.Thank you for sharing.
Cheers
Sue
the door is always open, the kettles always on, my shoulders here to cry on, i'll not judge who's right or wrong.

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Maureen K Clifford
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Joined: Tue Nov 09, 2010 10:31 am
Location: Ipswich - Paul Pisasale country and home of the Ipswich Poetry Feast
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Re: MY LOST PLACE - MY COUNTRY

Post by Maureen K Clifford » Sat May 07, 2011 1:48 pm

thanks Sue - I have put the video link up there if you want to see more.

Cheers

Maureeen
Check out The Scribbly Bark Poets blog site here -
http://scribblybarkpoetry.blogspot.com.au/


I may not always succeed in making a difference, but I will go to my grave knowing I at least tried.

mummsie
Posts: 1062
Joined: Thu Apr 14, 2011 11:33 am
Location: Tumut, NSW

Re: MY LOST PLACE - MY COUNTRY

Post by mummsie » Sat May 07, 2011 3:35 pm

enjoyed the video maureen, thank you for sharing.
Sue
the door is always open, the kettles always on, my shoulders here to cry on, i'll not judge who's right or wrong.

Jasper Brush

Re: MY LOST PLACE - MY COUNTRY

Post by Jasper Brush » Sat May 07, 2011 8:02 pm

G'day, Maureen.


Dunno, what ever you dooo you dooo well.


Very good video production.


You should have your own TV show. :D


I enjoy every aspect of your talent.

Regards,


John

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