ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

Brass Banned

© Stephen Whiteside 24.10.011

I am the trumpet, the star of the show.
I keep all the instruments firmly in tow.
I'm silky and golden. I'm strident and bright.
With bell held up high, I'm a wonderful sight.

I am the tuba, sonorous, deep.
I stick to the low notes, thus serving to keep
The melody grounded and firmly in place.
Slow and deliberate's my usual pace.

I'm the trombone. I am bursting with pride.
I do not have valves. Instead I've a slide.
I play in the middle, but confidently go
Up very high, and down very low.

I am the bass drum, boompety boom!
Stand to the side, I need plenty of room.
I'm large and I'm round and I offer the beat,
The left and the right for the marching of feet.

We'll play any tune from the stand in the park,
From well before sun-up to way after dark.
Our sound carries far across water and land.
P'raps that's the reason why we have been banned!

well done Stephen.

Only you could do it Stephen!

Thanks Neville, Heather.

G'day Stephen,

You keep coming up with new ideas. Do you have a library of suggestions or do you make notes as you go about your daily routine on 'ideas' to write about? I used to keep a list but the book became full of other things and I'm not sure where it is now. Maybe I'll start another list in the computer. However, the original list was so portable, that I would take it whenever we went away from home. Being only a humble exercise book, it soon became full of all kinds of scribbling, poems, shopping lists, reminders. Oh I just remembered I did a little scribble on the way home... Catch you later.

Thanks for the compliment, Zondrae. No, I don't make a list or carry a book of ideas. A patient was talking to me on Monday about her choir. I can't remember what it was, but something she said reminded me of a brass band, and I used to play in one, back in school; mostly the trumpet, but also a brief - and ultimately unsuccessful (the general consensus was that I couldn't keep the beat!) - stint on the bass drum. The 'band/banned' pun jumped into my mind at the same time, and it seemed like a good way to finish the poem.

... begs the question Stephen, is the TUBA considered Acoustic, or Heavy Metal?? ...

Both, I guess, though it's only really heavy metal if you have to carry it yourself. The sousaphone is a lot heavier I would have thought, but the way it wraps itself around you like an anaconda, it may well be easier to carry - then again, I have a feeling they're made of fibreglass. In another life I write brass band marches - a life that only exists in my head, I mean (at least so far...).

When I was little my mum would play a record called "Tubby the Tuba". Anyone else know it?

By Danny Kay? And the flip side was POPO the Puppet ???