"arnhem" poems
…These men are worth your tears:
You are not worth their merriment.
-Wilfred Owen, “Apologia Pro Poemate Meo”
When that loudmouth on the wireless machine
Alludes to Western Civilization
What does he mean? Paradise Lost? Probably not
Nor Saint Paul speaking on the Field of Mars
The Kalevala, Hagia Sophia
With its pendentives lifting up our prayers
Horatius fighting to defend his bridge
And Wilfred Owen dying bravely on his
Lord Tennyson and Idylls of the King
Chapultepec, Henry V, Becket
The paratroops at Arnhem, Saint Thomas More,
His King’s loyal servant, but God’s first
The Stray Dog poets of Saint Petersburg
The brave last stand of Roland at Roncesvalles
Lewis and Tolkien and glasses of beer
Montcalm and Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham
Hildegard von Bingen, Siegfried and the Rhine
Magna Carta, HMS Hood, the Thames
The Grove of Daphne, “The Old Rugged Cross”
Beatrix Potter and her little pet rabbit
El Cid, Anne Frank, John Keats, Saint Benedict
“I Have a Dream,” Dostoyevsky, and Greene
Viktor Frankl, Dag Hammarkskjold, and Proust
Good Chaucer’s naughty pilgrims telling tales
The Gettysburg Address, Willie and Joe
Stern Saint Augustine of North Africa
Wodehouse writing a jolly bit of fun
Saint Corbinian and Bavaria
The ancient glories of Byzantium
Pius XII contra the bombs and lies
The 602nd TD Battalion
Saint Joan, the Prado, and Robert Frost
And far, far more.
When that loudmouth on the wireless machine
Alludes to Western Civilization
What does he mean?
Nov 4, 2018
Nov 4, 2018 at 4:06 PM UTC
slumped under a tree
in the centre of the city
half-empty bottle by your side
liquid purple ticket
to the dreamtime
eyes shut
foot twitching
a smile on your round black face
lost in ancestral memories
walking the scorched red earth
of Arnhem land
escaping for a while
the hatred of the white New World
Sep 3, 2010
Sep 3, 2010 at 6:38 PM UTC
The many natural wonders
That Australia has to show
Mysteriously appearing
So many years ago
Looking up onto the Snowy’s
From the lakes of Jindabyne
You appreciate the beauty
That will stand the test of time
From Katoomba falls to Orphan Rock
The three sisters standing tall
The beautiful Blue Mountains
Where Mother Nature gave her all
Down south of the border
Along the coastline you will see
The apostles and the Loch Ard Gorge
Formed by limestone naturally
The Grampian to the Dandenong’s
Buchan Caves to Wilsons Prom
It makes you wonder when and where
This great beauty came from
Travelling further West
You will wonder what you’ve found
The Blue Lake of Mt Gambier
The colourful Wilpena Pound
Over the Nullarbor you’ll go
Cross the Great Australian Bight
Flinders Ranges far behind you
Slowly fading out of sight
On through the Sterling Ranges
Where the wildflowers abound
Jagged peaks of Granite
Shooting upward from the ground
Then to the Red Centre
The most wondrous place of all
Its colours ever changing
With every day’s nightfall
The Olgas up to Arnhem Land
Devils Marbles, Uluru
Katherine Gorge to Mataranka
Standley Chasm, Kakadu
Over to the Sunshine State
The holiday makers dream
The Barrier Reef, The Daintree
The National Parks of Tambourine
The South Pacific Islands
Blue Waters and white Sands
To the tropical rainforests
Which are further north, inland
Then down to the Apple Isle
With its historic convict past
Cradle Mountain, Derwent Valley
Russell Falls and Tasman’s Arch
The many natural wonders
So majestic and so grand
Make it easy to appreciate
This great Australian Land
Elise L Turnedge
1997
Sep 5, 2019
Sep 5, 2019 at 7:15 AM UTC