ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

AND SO IT GOES ... Maureen Clifford © The #ScribblyBark Poet


Feast your eye on the vision splendid
of green grass, lush and soft.
Acres and acres of it - where
sheep and deer graze together
in utter contentment and serenity.
Small lambs frisk and play.
A willy willy meanders across the paddock,
then falls to ground in a puff of red dust
and a scatter of dry leaves and grasses.

Smell the breath of roses – faint,
and the stronger scent of wattle.
The ironbark and yellow box are in full bloom.
See the native bee busy collecting nectar
from the red flower of the prickly pear ,
whose sharp spines worry him not at all.

Beneath a blue sky festooned with white clouds
my Kestrel - Joy hangs,seemingly suspended
wind hovering,drifting on the currents
and thermals – Natures smallest raptor
Hear her call – short and sharp –
but no Jack answers her as she searches for food.

And as you sit, amidst the red termite mounds,
and xanthorrheas – wondering
about the granite boulders that are scattered
across this place like a giants marbles -
do you sense the soul of suffering
other stone dreamers – the ancient ones,
who perhaps also sat in this same place
eons ago?.

Some good concrete images Maureen. A bit lost on me at the moment, it's cold and miserably bleak round our way, though the willy wagtails are dancing around.

It's cold here as well Neville - well for Queenslanders, although not as cold as it is out Stanthorpe way. Truth to tell I am glad I am here and not there at the moment.

As I have said before, when I was up in the granite country round west of Tenterfield , it seemed to have a lonely strange aura, don't quite know what it is. As I recall, more hilly and scrubby country than your experience in your poem about green paddocks.

A very calming image you have painted Maureen. Lovely.
Trish

Thanks Trish.

Neville it is hilly and scrubby and being traprock very stony. It is also very forgiving country - you literally see the green pick coming through after a shower of rain - it bounces back quickly but sadly it dies off just as quickly. It can be lush and green but sadly over the past 10 years or so they haven't seen that two often.. Here's 2 piccies of our old place - before and after

There's sure some contrasts there Maureen. hmm I don't see any deer.

now you do

Yes it's a bit like, where's Wally