Smokey

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r.magnay
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Smokey

Post by r.magnay » Thu Apr 03, 2014 6:45 am

I had a phone call a couple of nights ago from an old mate who lives up the top end...Dundee beach actually, he wanted permission to use one of the poems from my book "'Course I'm Bloody Dinkum!" on Anzac day. it is a poem I wrote quite some time ago about an old POW who I knew well. His niece read this at his funeral too. I guess there is nothing too fancy about it technically, but it makes a point I think.
I may have posted it before on a previous site I think.

“SMOKEY”

© Ross Magnay 1.9.91

Every town has got one, or at least they prob’ly had,
A hero just like this one, he may even be your Dad.
But our town’s got old Smokey, a hero so they say,
And they reckon but for Smokey, there’d be less of us today.

And though his legs are weakened, and he walks inside a frame,
His heart and spirit still intact, his mind is still the same.
Though the years creep up on Smokey, on this hardened little bloke,
When ‘ere you talk to Smokey, you will always get a joke.

But Smokey wears no medals, and he makes no claim to fame,
And if he makes one hundred, he’ll still be just the same.
But I often think of Smokey, just what goes through his mind,
About the Burma railway, and the blokes he left behind.

The blokes that he came home with, the blokes so frail and sick,
That’s why I reckon Smokey, is such a good old stick.
So listen you do-gooders that knock blokes who went to war,
For we will never really know, the things they did or saw.

They went and fought for us you know, and we should really care,
That because of blokes like Smokey, we can breathe AUSTRALIAN air!
Last edited by r.magnay on Thu Apr 03, 2014 1:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Ross

Vic Jefferies
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Re: Smokey

Post by Vic Jefferies » Thu Apr 03, 2014 9:38 am

Perfect Ross! That is it in a nutshell!

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Maureen K Clifford
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Re: Smokey

Post by Maureen K Clifford » Thu Apr 03, 2014 10:56 am

Spot on Ross - that's it exactly, sadly though those old 'Smokey's' have just about all drifted away.
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.

Vic Jefferies
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Re: Smokey

Post by Vic Jefferies » Thu Apr 03, 2014 8:29 pm

You are right Maureen,many of the old Smokeys have drifted away, but sadly they have been replaced by too many "young Smokeys."

r.magnay
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Re: Smokey

Post by r.magnay » Fri Apr 04, 2014 5:36 am

Scanned from my book, drawing by Teresa Ramsey.
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Ross

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Maureen K Clifford
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Re: Smokey

Post by Maureen K Clifford » Fri Apr 04, 2014 11:09 am

WOW - Yong Teresa has talent - what an excellent pencil sketch
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.

r.magnay
Posts: 1402
Joined: Sun Oct 31, 2010 1:41 pm
Location: Port Lincoln SA

Re: Smokey

Post by r.magnay » Fri Apr 04, 2014 11:27 am

Yes Maureen, she is very talented...by the way she is not of Asian descent......(I think you may have meant young rather than Yong. ;) )
Ross

Terry
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Re: Smokey

Post by Terry » Fri Apr 04, 2014 11:40 am

G/day Ross,
It says it all mate - Thanks.

Terry

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