WITH JIMMY SHARMAN'S TROUPE - poem by Colin Newsome
Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2011 10:00 am
(The Green Tree Snake) Colin Newsome was a shearer and shed-hand, stockman and drover, soldier and show-ground fighter, bushworker and bush philosopher. A native of Glenn Innes, limited education has hindered his literary attempts, but his rugged verses carry a chime of crude sincerity and stark reality that more accomplished scribes seem anable to attain when writing about Australia's outback regions.
WITH JIMMY SHARMAN'S TROUPE
I've been stockman, drover, barman,
Said the shearer to his mates,
And i've toured with Jimmy Sharman,
In four Australian states.
'A challenge to all-commers',
Old Jimmy use to say,
And he was sixty summers,
If he was a blanky day.
I've had a rib and nose and jaw bust,
In many country towns,
And wrestled in the saw-dust,
With a hundred local clowns.
Queensland sugar lumpers,
And men who cut the cane,
Would challenge Sharman's thumpers,
For glory or for gain.
'Ring the bell and beat the big drum,
In western New South Wales,
Here's a fencer from the lignum,
As hard as horseshoe nails!
Push the crowd back from the canvas,
Surging farward like a flood,
All excited, every fan was,
Screaming for our blood.
'Down the Riverina,
Where they grow the wheat and corn,
Here's a man can throw a weaner,
If he gets him by the horn.
Wrestle with the fella,
Throw him on the mat,
And a womans umberella,
Comes down and knocks you flat.
Victorian timber workers,
And tillers of the soil,
Fight like wounded ghurkas,
When their blood begins to boil.
Toe to toe and rally! rally!,
Stagger backwards to the wall,
Fight the champion from the Mallee,
Head and shoulders over all.
Oh the glory gleam and glamour,
And the rush of Sydney show,
Where a hundred fighters clamour,
For the right to have a go.
How the challenges would wrangle,
And shout in dis-accord,
Some, intent to fight or strangle,
Tried to clamper up the board.
But they were wiser men and sadder,
When they got their senses back,
For Rud Kee at the ladder,
Was a tough old nut to crack.
I've travelled east and far, men,
And I'll roam further yet,
But the tour with Jimmy Sharman,
Is one i don't forget.
When the drums of memory rally,
With recollection bells,
And sent of saw-dust Sally,
Through the sheepyards rancid smells.
Then in fancy on the showgrounds,
My heart will take a glove,
While babies ride the merry-go-rounds,
And all the world's in love.
Colin Newsome (The Green Tree Snake)
WITH JIMMY SHARMAN'S TROUPE
I've been stockman, drover, barman,
Said the shearer to his mates,
And i've toured with Jimmy Sharman,
In four Australian states.
'A challenge to all-commers',
Old Jimmy use to say,
And he was sixty summers,
If he was a blanky day.
I've had a rib and nose and jaw bust,
In many country towns,
And wrestled in the saw-dust,
With a hundred local clowns.
Queensland sugar lumpers,
And men who cut the cane,
Would challenge Sharman's thumpers,
For glory or for gain.
'Ring the bell and beat the big drum,
In western New South Wales,
Here's a fencer from the lignum,
As hard as horseshoe nails!
Push the crowd back from the canvas,
Surging farward like a flood,
All excited, every fan was,
Screaming for our blood.
'Down the Riverina,
Where they grow the wheat and corn,
Here's a man can throw a weaner,
If he gets him by the horn.
Wrestle with the fella,
Throw him on the mat,
And a womans umberella,
Comes down and knocks you flat.
Victorian timber workers,
And tillers of the soil,
Fight like wounded ghurkas,
When their blood begins to boil.
Toe to toe and rally! rally!,
Stagger backwards to the wall,
Fight the champion from the Mallee,
Head and shoulders over all.
Oh the glory gleam and glamour,
And the rush of Sydney show,
Where a hundred fighters clamour,
For the right to have a go.
How the challenges would wrangle,
And shout in dis-accord,
Some, intent to fight or strangle,
Tried to clamper up the board.
But they were wiser men and sadder,
When they got their senses back,
For Rud Kee at the ladder,
Was a tough old nut to crack.
I've travelled east and far, men,
And I'll roam further yet,
But the tour with Jimmy Sharman,
Is one i don't forget.
When the drums of memory rally,
With recollection bells,
And sent of saw-dust Sally,
Through the sheepyards rancid smells.
Then in fancy on the showgrounds,
My heart will take a glove,
While babies ride the merry-go-rounds,
And all the world's in love.
Colin Newsome (The Green Tree Snake)