ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

From Mansfield to Benalla (The Return)

From Mansfield to Benalla is a wretched, lonely track
When your plans have all been ruined, and you're faced with turning back;
When your dreams have turned to ashes, and your heart has turned to stone;
When your clothes are filthy rags, and you must face the trip alone.

From Mansfield to Benalla is a mighty slog on foot
When your car (and all your CDs!) are a ragged pile of soot;
When your feet are cold and blistered, when your socks are sodden through,
And your boots, once brightly polished, are in poor condition, too.

From Mansfield to Benalla is a friendless place at night,
When the sun has long since vanished, and the moonshine guides your sight;
When a lone owl's eerie hooting or the bleat of random sheep
Through the long, cold friendless walk is all the company you keep.

From Mansfield to Benalla is a really long, long way
When you find you're still deep in it come the dawning of the day;
When first you learn that things can turn from really bad to worse;
From Mansfield to Benalla is a swindle and a curse!

I like this one better than the previous same theme. Not because of the tone of the theme here, but I think you have made a stronger feel of reality with specific, concrete images, i.e. things such as ashes, stone, rags, car, CDs, soot, owl, boots, feet ,socks. ( I could be wrong )

Thanks, Neville. Of course, misery is generally more interesting to read about than happiness.

Stephen Whiteside wrote:Of course, misery is generally more interesting to read about than happiness.

I discounted that.

Hi Stephen

I went back and re-read your original poem (before that blonde-haired truckie derailed you ). Despite the humour in this fictitious duel, it made me begin to think in earnest about how much our perception is affected by our circumstances, events, maybe even our ingrained ideas. Places where good events have occurred are remembered with fondness, whereas bad experiences taint the geography as well as the history!!

Love the vivid contrast between the two poems!

Cheers
Shelley

True enough, Shelley! Thanks.

Easy country to get lost in Stephen.

Called into Greta a while back and tried to find the cemetery. Roads and tracks everywhere.

Merv.

Yes, I can imagine.

I like it Stephen.

Thank you, Heather.