Taffy Waits

[Dave Smith]

Kym
Don’t change any names in this great poem; the fact that it is based on a true story gives it credence more than that there might be some inaccuracies toward the end. If the poem is about the painting then the name must stay the same.

TTFN Your Mate Mr

[Heather]

An absolutely beautiful and extremely touching poem Kym. The soldiers having to leave their horses behind was one of the saddest stories of the war. It must have been gut wrenching for them after all they had been through together. I believe that some soldiers shot their own horses rather than give them to the Egyptians.

Just a tad excited about your 5th book Kym? Sounds like you should be too, it sounds wonderful. Can't wait to see the finished product.

Heather

[warooa]

Great to see your passion for your project spilluth over . . . I reckon that the bonding of art and poetry works delightfully well in this case. As for 'Taffy Waits' I reckon don't touch a thing - you've encapsulated the imagery of the painting well along with your words that weave a magic of their own. As good as your 'Don't Forget the Horses' tribute.

Cheers, Marty

ps and how's that Finland thing. I guess you could say after the war some horses were finished, whilst others were Finnished

[Kym]

Thanks Dave and Heather. And Marty, you're very clever! Finnished, hahaha, oops, I shouldn't laugh, it's not funny. Yes it is. No it's not.

[Bellobazza]

G'day Kym...
Thank you so much for sharing this with us. I quoted Coleridge in another thread. He said that poetry is the best words in the best order. Lo and behold, almost the next thing I read is "Taffy Waits"...a wonderful example of best words in best order. Great stuff.

By the way, I think this is more than a "horse poem"...it's about true courage, mateship and loyalty in adversity.

Cheers, Will.
P.S. to Manfred...we really do need that gold star avatar that was available on the old site mate. This one is a case in point!

[carol heuchan]

Kym - it's beautiful.
carol

[warooa]

I thought this was well worth pulling up again, for the awards it has won . . . and I'm curious, Kym if you did change it any? I reckon you nailed it straight up. It doesn't (need to) blather on. It hits you where it's meant to as it is.

Once again . . . love it! Goodonya Kymmie.

Cheers, Marty

[Terry]

Hi Kym a wonderful poem,
By coincidence I'm reading a book called the great war, in this case it's on the western front and I think most of the horses were being used to move the big guns (not sure if there was any mounted action). In one day alone 7000 horses were killed, 97 with one shell.
This along with the thousand of men killed the same day gives us some idea of horror of it all.

Terry

[Leonie]

Yeah, I'd like to add my congratulations as well, this is a great poem, well deserving of the win, as yours always are Kym.

[Frank Daniel]

Dear Kym,
Another great poem from your stable!

Many horses from the Snowy Mountains were taken as remounts, but as William said, the coloured horse were not wanted.
I remember some old hands from an area known as Yaouk (pron. Yi - ak) down towards Adaminaby who owned a string of horses and all bar their coloured horses were accepted by the army.
I don't think they were called Palomino's in those days. People may have thought they were inbred - who knows.

I wouldn't change the horse's name either, although we owned a few Taffy's in my younger days, but they were mostly a chocolatey colour.
Here's to you Kym, great work again.

Joe