Only Six Years (Winner, Open section, 5th Toolangi Festival)

[Stephen Whiteside]

I was thrilled and rather stunned to win the Adult Open section of the 5th Toolangi C. J. Dennis Poetry Festival written competition this year.

It looks rather incestuous, me winning as well as promoting the festival, and reporting the results elsewhere on the ABPA web-site - and I suppose it is. All I can say in my defence is the judge is quite adamant he had no idea who had written any of the award winning poems at the time of judging.

A few words about the poem itself. Dennis' 'rags to riches' story of squatting on an abandoned mill at Toolangi, completing "The Sentimental Bloke" at "Sunnyside", and finding himself able to return to Toolangi and purchase this same property on the back of the book's enormous success, is relatively well documented. What is less well known, I think, is the 'riches to rags' story that followed.

I was quite shocked to read in "Dear Robertson: Letters to an Australian Publisher" earlier this year that, within six years of the publication of the Bloke, Dennis was destitute once again.

These letters were the inspiration for this poem.


Only Six Years

© Stephen Whiteside 15.08.2012

It was only six years since the ‘Bloke’ hit the shops, and had rocketed into the sky;
Only six years since ‘Den’ put on wings, and showed the world how he could fly;
Only six years since Robertson wrote how the good book had gone ‘loop the loop’,
Yet now he was down on his uppers again, and fortune had clean flown the coop.

How do they do it, these masterful poets? (Lawson, of course, was the same.)
They write like sweet angels. They sell lots of books. Experts they are at the game.
They make heaps of money, but where does it go? Surely it’s not all for drink.
It vanishes swiftly like sand through their fingers, and pushes them back to the brink.

Dennis lived high at the Menzies Hotel as he bathed in the flush of success,
Or so I have read. Such spending, no doubt, groomed ground for the subsequent mess.
All of his life, till that point, had been tough. I can understand why he cut loose,
But I can’t comprehend why he didn’t do more to ease back, and ration his juice.

Investments went sour. The ‘Bloke’ silent film was not liked at all by the Yanks.
His shares lost their value - no joy to be found in peddling them to the banks.
He’d also bought shares in a timber mill. Why? Well, he lived in a forest of trees,
But that proved a dud in the way of the film, and brought the poor man to his knees.

Was it simply bad luck? Or a case of bad judgement? Things just could not have gone worse.
People in business do not make great poets. I guess that applies in reverse.
But why not accept that you don’t understand how the wheels of industry grind?
Avoid speculation. Invest somewhere safe, for the sake of your cash...and your mind.

But that’s not the way that they do it, these blokes. It has to have colour, and dash,
And then they complain when it goes bottom up, and they find they have squandered their cash.
I don’t mind so much that these big, grown up men should finish their lives on the skids,
But often you’ll find in the background, as well, dependents - a wife, say, and kids.

Now, Dennis and Biddy were not blessed with kids. Perhaps that was all for the best,
For if he had also some young mouths to feed, that would have proved quite a sore test,
But poor Biddy suffered, with ‘Den’ on the grog, and lost to the world half the time,
When really, you’d think, he’d be fit as a fox, a clever man, still in his prime.

It’s clearly much deeper then I can perceive. Genius has its own ways.
How do you drive a cerebrum like that without getting lost in its maze?
Or that’s how it seems, from the outside, at least. There’s stuff that I’m missing, no doubt,
And if I was trapped in his mind I would scream, “Let me out! Let me out! Let me out!”

But still, I just struggle. I can’t comprehend why it all went so sour so quick.
He must have been rolling in dough for a while from Doreen, the ‘Bloke’, Ginger Mick.
To think that he went from such ecstatic heights to valleys of heartache and tears,
That all he had fought for so hard, he had lost, and had lost it in only six years.

[warooa]

Congratulations Stephen . . .

Great poem, probably summed up in one line -

People in business do not make great poets. I guess that applies in reverse.

Well done. Deserved winner.

Cheers, Marty

[Stephen Whiteside]

Thanks, Marty. Yes, I think you're probably right. Dennis said as much himself.

[Zondrae]

Well done Stephen.

The extra effort you have made in addressing this delicate topic, (with this competition in mind,) can be most appreciated by we others who try to present appropriate material when entering a competition. It is obvious that you have a keen interest in CJ and his works. You are certainly educating me as well as any other of your readers. For this I thank you and offer my sincere congratulations.

[Mal McLean]

Well done cobber!

[Stephen Whiteside]

Thanks Zondrae, Mal.

[Glenny Palmer]

Congratulations Stephen. Well done. Shall we say 'A just return on your investment'...(re your support of the craft & the comp) which makes you the exception to the rule...a fully fledged corporate bard?
You must be thrilled. Bonza.
Cheeers
Glenny

[Stephen Whiteside]

Not a bad way of looking at it! Thanks, Glenny.

[Neville Briggs]

Congratulations Stephen.

[Stephen Whiteside]

Thanks, Neville.