ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

Have mentioned elsewhere on the site about the If You Know Bourke (IYKB) project I am working on - this poem makes more sense in the context of the project - but it also works as a 'stand alone' - I have added a link below if you want to put it into context...might add some more from the series and will denote them with the (IYKB) so you know....

Carried Along

He’s a big man with big open arms - he carries a big heart
And you can see it there in his big smile
He carries a big story that he’s eager to impart
And he’ll tell it if you can ‘sit a while’
The story is the newest and the oldest ever told
And the tale can be neither right nor wrong
It’s the story of a town and the people it enfolds
And the telling of it carries you along.

The sun sets on the rock art of the Gundabooka park
But the beauty of it all can still be seen
As the markings and the modern viewer mingle in the dark
When new eyes look where ancient hands have been
For if you’re prepared to look for the things you cannot see
You begin to hear the echo of a song
You may feel it for the singer or for what it hopes to be
But the truth of it is what carries you along

When youre looking out for answers then you will often learn
That the questions are the hardest things to find
And a glimpse at the truth is a reward that you will earn
When looking through a different frame of mind
But knowing will not get you to the place you need to go
When only moving forward makes you strong
It is the will to learn combined with all you’ve come to know
That forms the wave that carries you along

We each walk a different path from a very different place
Yet we move toward an end that we all share
our stories are as many as the choices we embrace
And we tell them to remind ourselves we care
So if we can tell the story of the future that we make
It may be easier to get it right than wrong
And we may find a path together that all of us can take
And it helps when someone carries you along

h

http://hullyjoe.com/andrew-hull/project ... ow-bourke/

"G'day" Hully.

I followed the link in your previous post to the six (?) performances.

At this stage, not having time to stay there, I have sampled each one and will return as time permits
to hear them in their entirety.

I'm interested to know if Geoff Wise stumped up some cash ?
It seems it is a marvellous touristy project.
Will it be available for public hearings at the Back o' Bourke Centre ?
If not it bloody should be.

"Congratulations"
Jim.

Gday Jim,
very astute of you - I managed to get some support from the Council as they recognise the archiving value of the work - there will be 16 pieces in total (should be 8 up there now - including a piece by Geoff Wise) - currently running out 1 per week on abc and local radio so won't have them all up there until late Sept - at that time will be launching a double disc with all the pieces on it....

h

"onya" mate.
Does it produce income ?

However, it should be taken further -

' a voice and visual ' similar that which exists/did exist in the Info. Centre in Cowra.
There's something that is an installation elsewhere, but I can't recall.

However, you get my message, I think.
How far do you want to take it ?

A PM conversation may be more appropo.
Regards
jim.

Great work Hully - love this one. I have listened to 3 so far they are running in the background as I do other things.

Amazed at the mileage of the roads that Burke services - so pleased they ensure the grader driver takes packed lunch. That is a pretty impressive figure - who ever would have thought.

Phils tourist trips sound great - he sounds like a really nice caring bloke and the simple philosophy behind the yellowbelly story is a lovely story - well worth taking on board.

Lovely to see ABC radio pick it up - would like to think that ABC TV would do so as well - it would be a fascinating little insert to a program like Landline or Message Stick perhaps

Hope it does well for you Hully - it is a great concept IMO

Cheers

Maureen

Interesting Hully that you mentioned Gundabooka. I have walked up to the place where the rock pictures are found at Gundabooka.

When I was on a holiday in Tasmania I was astonished to find in the Hobart Art Gallery, a large oil painting by William Piguenit called The Flood of 1890 and Mount Gundabooka.
There is a companion painting by W Piguenit in the Art Gallery of NSW called Flood on the Darling. Both done in the same year at the same location. I think near the spot where the road crosses or crossed the railway line south of Bourke.

Wow Neville - thats pretty cool - I was in Tassie a couple of weeks ago but didn't get to the State Gallery - (I did get to MONA which is pretty amazing) - I wish I had seen that painting....not sure if you have visited the link I posted but I think you would find someone you know there....

Thanks for your kind words Maureen and Jim - I am proud of the project and I will be happy to get out of it 'cost neutral' - but I'm not there yet...as Guy Clarke wrote "There aint no money in poetry, that's what sets the poet free..."

cha

h

I had a look at the link. I knew Bob Stutsel of course.