Looking Back
Posted: Sun Oct 08, 2017 7:30 pm
We’re attempting to start a small writers group over here.
The main idea is to encourage new writers – but it’s open to anyone who’d like to have a go.
I’m meant to be mostly helping the newer writers – but I did this homework anyway.
Looking at this again I see I have at least one half rhyme and a repeated rhyme as well,
perhaps it's me who should be getting lessons.
Looking Back 2
My mind keeps drifting back these days, to years I spent outback,
as in my dreams I wander yet along life’s fading track.
I clearly see that country now, as though I’m there to-day,
still camped beneath a shady tree out Yundramindra way.
Remembering the many camps, and mates that I once knew;
I see again their faces - back when they were young blokes too.
Oh! we were full of daring then, prepared to have a go,
and tried our hands at many things, . . . in days long, long ago.
I’ve seen the early sunrise, way out on the gibber plain,
and dug for precious opal on a Coober Pedy claim.
Then held those sparkling gemstones as they flashed there in my hand,
and marvelled that such beauty, could lie hidden in this land.
Those memories keep drifting back to days of yesteryear,
the places and the faces - I can see then now so clear.
One special face I’ll not forget still lingers in my heart,
ten years you shared that lonely life and loved it from the start.
I think again about those days and miss it still today,
that special place may touch you too, if you should pass that way.
I searched for gold but gained much more and loved the freedom found;
a part of me will always be, out in that deep red ground.
I’ve seen it in the best of times – I’ve seen it at its worst,
I’ve seen that country flooded, and I’ve seen stock die of thirst.
Despite the deadly pathways then, that nature sometimes took;
there’s beauty in its harshness too, for those who care to look.
*****
© T. E. Piggott
The main idea is to encourage new writers – but it’s open to anyone who’d like to have a go.
I’m meant to be mostly helping the newer writers – but I did this homework anyway.
Looking at this again I see I have at least one half rhyme and a repeated rhyme as well,
perhaps it's me who should be getting lessons.
Looking Back 2
My mind keeps drifting back these days, to years I spent outback,
as in my dreams I wander yet along life’s fading track.
I clearly see that country now, as though I’m there to-day,
still camped beneath a shady tree out Yundramindra way.
Remembering the many camps, and mates that I once knew;
I see again their faces - back when they were young blokes too.
Oh! we were full of daring then, prepared to have a go,
and tried our hands at many things, . . . in days long, long ago.
I’ve seen the early sunrise, way out on the gibber plain,
and dug for precious opal on a Coober Pedy claim.
Then held those sparkling gemstones as they flashed there in my hand,
and marvelled that such beauty, could lie hidden in this land.
Those memories keep drifting back to days of yesteryear,
the places and the faces - I can see then now so clear.
One special face I’ll not forget still lingers in my heart,
ten years you shared that lonely life and loved it from the start.
I think again about those days and miss it still today,
that special place may touch you too, if you should pass that way.
I searched for gold but gained much more and loved the freedom found;
a part of me will always be, out in that deep red ground.
I’ve seen it in the best of times – I’ve seen it at its worst,
I’ve seen that country flooded, and I’ve seen stock die of thirst.
Despite the deadly pathways then, that nature sometimes took;
there’s beauty in its harshness too, for those who care to look.
*****
© T. E. Piggott
