ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

On Thinking Back

Mind games manipulate
In dreamy reflections
And do not stipulate
Of old recollections,
That memories portrayed
In time honoured fashion
Are not time warp delayed
And free from a passion,
To colour past events
When times that are savoured
Felicity consents
To facts that are favoured
By values with ideals
Of present imposing
On yore, then but reveals
…Not truthful disclosing!

© Ron Boughton 2012

I am not sure what you intending to say Ron.

Have you ever read any of these;
The Hour of Parting by John Shaw Neilson,
Because by James McAuley
The Men We might have Been. by Henry Lawson.

They are ( imo ) powerful poems of looking or thinking back. I think that the strength of these comes from the use of plain, blunt language in short ordinary words and sentences. At least that's what I am trying to learn from these master poets.

G'day Ron,

Yeah to be honest I kinda like where you are going with this. I find with a bit more work it will go from being a nice poem to being very good. I try to read it as drafted and its bumpy for me. Esp here "On yore, then but reveals …Not truthful disclosing!" the title of the poem is - ON THINKING BACK - if you could explain those lines it'll be appreciated. bearing in mine I don't know the story or context behind the poem. I'm sure you can smooth it out quite nicely. Keep up the good work and look forward to more postings from you.

Oh, I write in a different style to you so that where I'm kinda loos'n it a bit.

Great stuff.

PHIL

Neville and Phil, thanks for the replies,
There was supposed to be a message there and I tried something a little different for metre practice (something I struggle with) But guess it didn't quite work too well.
What I was trying to say was that we can tend to reflect on past events and experiences and, apply in our thinking, todays values and 'state of the art' thoughts to said events and this can cloud the actual facts somewhat. Also that the happy thoughts can take precedence in memory recall.
I have read Henry's poem Nev,but not the oether two, I shall endeavour to look them up.
Cheers
Ron