ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

It's Just the Smell of Gum Leaves

It’s just the smell of gum leaves. It hits me in that spot
That tells me clearly what is home, and what is clearly not;
That anchors me upon this ground as sure as any chain,
And calls me if I chance to roam again, again, again.

It’s just the smell of gum leaves. It talks of history
For all this wide brown land, and for my family, and me.
For this is where we’ve lived and died, and I have no desire
To camp and yarn in foreign bush around a foreign fire.

I love the golden wattle. I love the kangaroos,
The emus and the wombats and the sulphur cockatoos.
I love the native grasses. I love the bottlebrush.
I love the deserts dry and red, the forests green and lush.

I could potter round old England. I could charge across the States.
I could make my way through Norway with a pair of skis and skates.
I could ride a bike through Asia, take a train through Germany.
Call me narrow minded, it has no appeal for me.

The sights and sounds are endless in this land I love so well.
There’s a myriad aromas, each one clear as any bell.
I love them all, though some are sweet, and others sharp and tart.
It’s just the smell of gum leaves strikes most cleanly to my heart.

© Stephen Whiteside 22.03.2014

That's lovely Stephen. Smell is so evocative.

A bushy through and through Stephen? Good one ...Your poems really do the genre proud.
Wazza

Thanks Robyn, Wazza.

I was talking yesterday to a fellow about bushwalking, and he suggested I try heading overseas. I bristled a little at that, and it got me thinking...

A bit "My Country" Stephen I live with gum trees all around me but can rarely smell them. Must be the type of gum.

What I do love though are the sounds - and as I speak I can hear the Currawongs, the Choughs, Magpies and Crows.

Heather

I'm not sure if that's a compliment or not, Heather. Do you mean it's a bit cliched?

Not at all Stephen. You have just echoed the same sentiments but written it the way you see it.

But now that you mention it, (and only because you ask), I did baulk a bit at "wide brown land". Personally I would avoid using it because it is so synonymous with "My Country" but if that's how you see it then that's what you use....

Heather

Thanks, Heather. Yes, that's probably a fair cop. I wasn't conscious of MC when I wrote it, but it's a great little phrase, obviously buried deep in my subconscious.

That damn subconscious, there's just no controlling it is there?

Like the poem Stephen.
Wonderful old poetry anthology called The Wide Brown Land.