Help for croc & Glenny?

[Glenny Palmer]

This is a bitter sweet post I’m afraid. Our good mate croc is in the fairly advanced stages of the incurable Motor Neurone Disease; a mongrel of a thing that slowly munches away all of your muscles. On the up side, it allows your cognitive processes to stay fully functioning, so you do keep all of your marbles. At this stage croc is still walking…& talking, albeit with somewhat slurred speech. (Just pretend he’s tanked.)

The reason for this post is to firstly advise all of our good mates of croc’s misfortune, but to also ask for your help. I was chatting to Irene, & remarked that our dream of establishing a bonza bush poetry venue on our adjoining block was now unreachable. Irene saw it as otherwise & encouraged me to send out an SOS to our poetry mates. ‘‘Why not have a ‘working bee?’ Glenny’’ she said. ‘‘Ask our mates on the site.’’
Well, I thought that was a nice thought, but was so caught up in wrangling with the medical system for h e l p!! & endless paperwork etc that I didn’t give it enough further thought. And then Mal McLean visited us, & said… he would come! (Bless him.) So now my creativity has kicked in well & truly, (& I think the idea has sparked croc up…would give him something to keep living for, something he can feel involved in, something to look forward to… away from his recliner chair…where he is right put out that he can’t head for the bush fire disasters to chip in.) Here are my ideas.

Try to establish an inaugural poetry event in croc’s honour. Maybe ‘‘The Reptilian Writer’s Award’’(?) Yeah. That’s crook. So get thinking for me. I’ll seek funding for a written comp only, for this first year. After we have exhausted you from the working bee, we’ll have a bang up barbie with all comers to take the stage. No performance comp…no pressure…just a bunch of mad poets airing ‘their wares’ & having a great time together. Don’t matter a fig if you’re a seasoned performer or a newbie; we’ll love the lot of you. If enough poets do agree to come along, I’ll hit the local bush telegraph saying ‘The poets are coming to town!! If you want to enjoy their antics…you gotta chip in!!’’ I’ll see if our local bakery (which is the only wood fired one in Oz, to my knowledge) will help to cater, but you’ll haveta bring your own booze.
I will try to compile croc’s poems into a book, so we can have a book launch as well. Thanks to Frank Daniel hauling them out of his archives, (bless him) I have collected quite a few. It may only be a booklet for this year, but in the future I hope to expand it with some of croc's hilarious rants as well. If any poets will contribute a little of their product I could organise a raffle & door prize, hopefully including other ‘stuff’ from our very generous community.

There is top notch free camping down at our gorgeous Dawson River, with amenities, only 5 minutes from home here. (where parking is plentiful.) For further adventuring we have the incredible ‘‘Isla Gorge’’ nearby, & only a half hour away is the semi ghost town of Cracow, where Fred Brophy (tent boxing king) has his amaaazing country pub, & the old gold mine has been re-established. (Nice camping there too.)

The area needing to be established as a bush poetry venue is only the back half of our adjoining vacant town block. It is heavily treed & highly fenced with massive bush sheds, & the antique caravan that I’d like to paint up all gypsy like, for the ‘green room’, with a little platform attached for ‘the stage.’ (I already have a yellow ‘‘ Danger’’ sign I got from the dump, to hang above the performer’s heads.) So it is only a relatively small area needing a good clean out, & ultimately a set of gates. (And a bobcat bloke owes me a day so I’ll hook him into it.) It will probably be a pretty shaky & unusual start to an ongoing poetry event…but you gotta start somewhere, eh? I think that any future events here would be very well attended as this community is extremely friendly & supportive of all events. I was thinking that probably around April would be the time to hold this ‘event’, when the weather is cooler?
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Warm Regards to you all…our unique mates.
Glenny

[Bob Pacey]

Fair bit to digest in one go Glenny, I'll get back to ya.


Cheers Bob Ps i usually get hols in april ?


Bob

[Glenny Palmer]

Many thanks Bob. I am the 'Great Over Informer' at the best of times, but I feel sorta funny asking for help, so I thought I needed to explain it all. Just hope others are as reading diligent as you. I'm not that brain flash lately. Look forward to hearing from you mate. Ta again.
Cheeers
Glenny

[Irene]

Glenny - that's what mates are for - to help each other out when needed!! You have helped so many poets over the years, that the least we can do it reciprocate!!!

It would be great for us all to have an 'ownership' if you like of the nations biggest and best poets weekend, in a beautiful setting, and with a fabulous sense of cameraderie!!!
"Hey, we helped get all this going - isn't it a wonderful place to be?!?!"
I might have to put some pennies aside, and see if I can make the trip!!
I had been planning to get to Tamworth again this year, but, apart from not earning the money I had been earning I am in the middle of getting settled with casual rosters for two positions, so it was all too hard!!

Glad to see you are putting together Croc's work - I have missed his beautiful poetry (and his not so beautiful - rather blunt !! poetry!!).
Have you had a look on Ric's site for the work he had posted there over the years?? Put me down to buy a book when they come out!!

Look forward to seeing it all fall into place for you and Croc (and us bush poets!! )

Catchya
Irene

[David Campbell]

Rock Around The Croc?

David

[Neville Briggs]

I don't know how I will be placed for travelling in the foreseeable future. I'd like to come along. In the meantime, I'll try and think of a way I can help from here.

Do you have anyone who could do an auction ? Maybe getting together poetry collectables ( or art stuff ) for an auction would go ? Justa thought, in a thinktank there are no silly ideas...I hope

[Robyn]

Hi Glenny, really sorry to hear about Croc. I have a good friend in the same boat so I know it is a terrible disease. You are a long way from me but I'd be very happy to contribute material for a fundraiser. Good luck with your vision. My thoughts are with you.
Robyn

[Brenda Joy]

Sad news but a great idea. We could well be passing through Theo in April but it would be the fourth week around the 22nd/23rd - I have a gig in Crows Nest on the 19th and need to be in C.T. for the 10 days starting late April- and Hal and I would love to get involved. Just off to Tamworth, etc. so please keep us posted and updated.
lol
Brenda Joy

[Glenny Palmer]

You are all such bonza mates. Thank you so much. I started to write a reply much earlier but a tradesman rolled up & needed my attention.

IRene...thank you heaps for suggesting this idea. It really picked up our spirits & I became very enthusiastic about it...especially doing croc's book. But my confidence dips & sways a bit. It really is a big ask for folks to come such a long way out here, (especially you!! bless you.) & I hate being a bother at the best of times. But as Neville said it is a 'think tank' at present & I really appreciate any feedback. I think I will have more belief in my ability to make this happen once my home is back in order & the trestles & tools are gone, & I can get some order into daily life. Also, now that the medical profession has openly admitted that croc is ''one of those unfortunate people who have slipped through the cracks'' (shame!!) it will be easier, as they are finally (after several months of complete neglect) going to provide some tangible help for him. Thanks for nudging me along love.

Martyboy...what an absolute champion you are, to respond when you are in such crisis yourself. I do hope you are safe by now. xx

David...you are so clever! You put a big smile on my face with that one. (and thank you for your pm. I will answer that shortly. What a generous soul you are.)

Neville...me old mate. I put great stock in a lot of what you say, so I thank you for those good suggestions...mmm... It will be interesting to see how it all ends up. I know how hard it is for you to plan at present, but your moral support alone means heaps.

Bless you Robyn. I just thought a raffle with poet's CD's etc in it would be well received by any locals who may chip in...& good advertising for the poets & the event for the future. My best wishes to your friend, love.

Hellooo Brenda! What a treasure you are... to us all. So an event date is now unfolding. Shall we say a tentative 26/27/28th of April & work towards that? (not to work you for more than one day though... )Thank you love & good luck in Tamworth. xx

I'll just keep trying at this end, & we'll see what becomes possible, or not, from all the feedback.

Big hugs to you all...........I'm sorry for these 'war & peace' length posts of mine.....
Glenny

[Bob Pacey]

(I started to write a reply much earlier but a tradesman rolled up & needed my ATTENTION )


Just what are you doing out there Glenny !!!!!!!!


Confirm the date and I will book some holis if I can.


Cheers Bob