ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

OF GHOSTLY GUMS AND MULGA TREES

You rest beneath a shady tree, the billy on, a mug of tea
and look around there thinking just how lucky you must be.
To live out in that wilderness and know what freedom means,
far from the noisy cities and the chatter of machines.

While others talk of things they’ve seen and all the places they have been
and tell us of those wondrous lands with shores of endless green.
I love the arid inland with its hint of mystery,
an ancient land as old as time and steeped in history.

The first Australians breathed this air; a sacred place they trod with care;
their footprints may be now long gone, but other signs are there.
But nothing lasts forever and in time all things will change,
the hills that you can see there now were once a mountain range.

Today its nomads just like me who roam this place far from the sea
and though it’s harsh and rugged it’s a special place to be.
You sensed that you were seeing there this country’s last frontier
and worried that in time to come it all may disappear.

I see it still that magic land of Spinifex and deep red sand,
with weathered hills surrounding all wherever you may stand.
Each time I journey out that way I know it’s sure to please;
a place to love it seems to me; of ghostly gums and mulga trees.

© T.E. Piggott

Beautiful Terry - your picture is delightful - nicely done.

A great poem and a great read.

Beautiful, Terry

Thanks Maureen and Cropduster.

I'm pleased you enjoyed it.

Cheers terry

Beautiful images Terry - really enjoyed this poem

Thanks Catherine I'm pleased you enjoyed it.

I have just reworded the poems name and the line where it's in the poem,
back to how it was when I first wrote it - don't know why I changed in the first place.

Terry

Great imagery Terry. I liked it

Cheers Jeff

Thanks Jeff

There's so much to write about out in that Country.

Terry

G/day Matt

I'm in bad need of a fix that only a few weeks up there can cure mate.

I'm determined to get up there this year and at least do a bit of swinging.
At the moment all I can do is write about it.

It's not all bad though, I'm off to Peaceful Bay in a couple of days,
which is not a bad alternative.

Cheers Terry

I enjoyed the poem, too. My only quibble with it would be that, as I read it, it tends to perpetuate the myth of associating the Aborigines heavily with the Outback when we now know that, just like us, they tended to prefer the coastal and cooler areas. My suspicion is that there were far more living in the area of modern day Perth than further north or east, but people tend not to write poems about that.