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When sick at heart, around us


"When sick at heart, around us,
We see the cattle die"

These cattle are not dying but the poem reminds us that dry times can be very harsh in the country.

Musing:
The Plains by A B Banjo Paterson
"A land, as far as the eye can see, where the waving grasses grow
Or the plains are blackened and burnt and bare, where the false mirages go
Like shifting symbols of hope deferred - land where you never know.

Land of the plenty or land of want, where the grey Companions dance,
Feast or famine, or hope or fear, and in all things land of chance,
Where Nature pampers or Nature slays, in her ruthless, red, romance.

And we catch a sound of a fairy's song, as the wind goes whipping by,
Or a scent like incense drifts along from the herbage ripe and dry
- Or the dust storms dance on their ballroom floor, where the bones of the cattle lie."
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Comments

  1. UnknownJanuary 26, 2009 at 4:41 AM

    Very nice composition!
    Droughts in Australia can be a very serious matter! I remember you had a hard time in 2002 or 2003, right?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Joan ElizabethJanuary 26, 2009 at 8:54 AM

    Yes there as a severe drought in 2002. However the current drought has come so soon after that there’s was limited recovery time in between for growing conditions to improve and to store water so has been a 10 year dry. It has brought on much debate about the effects of climate change (higher temperatures evaporating water faster in addition to reduced rainfall) and has certainly changed our attitude to the supply of water.

    In the north of Australia is it a totally different story, they are getting buckets of rain (again attributed to climate change.)

    ReplyDelete
  3. PJJanuary 26, 2009 at 1:43 PM

    I like the last verse especially.

    ReplyDelete
  4. JulieFebruary 2, 2009 at 7:08 PM

    I like the red romance too as well as the bones of cattle on the dusty ball room. I can see the little whirlygigs.

    Lovely silhouette ... I am a sucker for grass heads ...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Joan ElizabethFebruary 2, 2009 at 9:54 PM

    So am I a sucker for grass heads, that's why they keep popping up in my pics, though I am trying to kerb myself a little.

    ReplyDelete

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