Agreeably Disappointed
Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2012 10:15 am
I have posted in the events section about the Poets Trek in Bourke (September 27-29) - and was reminded just what a rich vein of inspiration it provides me every time I go on it - I had never written 'bush poetry' before I went on this trek - so went back through poems and found this.
The back-story is that Lawson wrote back to his aunt that he was 'Agreeably Disappointed' with Bourke....
Agreeably Disappointed
©2004Andrew Hull
The country wraps around you like a glove around a hand
And modern words do little now to quantify the land
In the red dust of the ages that writers once anointed
I find myself, like Henry, agreeably disappointed.
For us it is a pleasure to connect ourselves with time
And to claim a link with landscape through a hundred years of rhyme
And the city on the Darling that Henry claimed would thrive
Is defying drought and doubt in a struggle to survive
But the drought will leave the native fish stranded on the sand
As it flaps and fights for life on the uninviting land
The movements will go weaker as it struggles for a breath
And the alien surroundings will impose a painful death
Today I saw a native son struggling on his way
He was muddled, he was messy and we wished he’d go away
And we wished we’d never seen our past so broken and disjointed
As a nervous laugh declared us all, agreeably disappointed
I looked into the yellow eyes and shook the weakened hand
And I swear I saw a mighty cod flapping on the land
The over-proofed voice spoke to us through his broken teeth
And thanked us for our greeting, did the mighty cod beneath
A better man than me wouldn’t look him in the eye
And a better man than me wouldn’t think or question why,
And all of us were wishing that he wouldn't 'make a scene'
But Henry would have seen him for the man he might have been
But for the grace of God, there we go, one and all
For neither man nor native fish can circumvent their fall
So I’m happy that I’m here and not broken and disjointed
And I feel a lot like Henry, agreeably disappointed.
h
The back-story is that Lawson wrote back to his aunt that he was 'Agreeably Disappointed' with Bourke....
Agreeably Disappointed
©2004Andrew Hull
The country wraps around you like a glove around a hand
And modern words do little now to quantify the land
In the red dust of the ages that writers once anointed
I find myself, like Henry, agreeably disappointed.
For us it is a pleasure to connect ourselves with time
And to claim a link with landscape through a hundred years of rhyme
And the city on the Darling that Henry claimed would thrive
Is defying drought and doubt in a struggle to survive
But the drought will leave the native fish stranded on the sand
As it flaps and fights for life on the uninviting land
The movements will go weaker as it struggles for a breath
And the alien surroundings will impose a painful death
Today I saw a native son struggling on his way
He was muddled, he was messy and we wished he’d go away
And we wished we’d never seen our past so broken and disjointed
As a nervous laugh declared us all, agreeably disappointed
I looked into the yellow eyes and shook the weakened hand
And I swear I saw a mighty cod flapping on the land
The over-proofed voice spoke to us through his broken teeth
And thanked us for our greeting, did the mighty cod beneath
A better man than me wouldn’t look him in the eye
And a better man than me wouldn’t think or question why,
And all of us were wishing that he wouldn't 'make a scene'
But Henry would have seen him for the man he might have been
But for the grace of God, there we go, one and all
For neither man nor native fish can circumvent their fall
So I’m happy that I’m here and not broken and disjointed
And I feel a lot like Henry, agreeably disappointed.
h
