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My Country

CryingDove
CryingDove
My Country
Sep 2 2009, 11:51 PM EDT | Post edited: Sep 2 2009, 11:51 PM EDT
The love of field and coppice
Of green and shaded lanes,
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins.
Strong love of grey-blue distance,
Brown streams and soft, dim skies
I know, but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of drought and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror
The wide brown land for me!

The stark white ring-barked forests,
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon,
Green tangle of the brushes
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops,
And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When, sick at heart, around us
We see the cattle die
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the rainbow gold,
For flood and fire and famine
She pays us back threefold.
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze…

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand
though Earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.
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bellswebster
bellswebster
1. RE: My Country
Sep 3 2009, 4:41 AM EDT | Post edited: Sep 3 2009, 4:41 AM EDT
Well hello crying dove...you know thats one of my favourite australian poems and authors - Dorothea McKellar.
Many thanks for that...you are aussie too then?
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bellswebster
bellswebster
2. RE: My Country
Sep 3 2009, 4:59 AM EDT | Post edited: Sep 3 2009, 4:59 AM EDT
I just checked out your profile...awesome doesn't seem to cover it!...loved the celtic music !...and one of my favourite songs - Over the Rainbow....I'll be checking out the rest tomorrow...very interesting!!..
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CryingDove
CryingDove
3. RE: My Country
Sep 3 2009, 7:37 AM EDT | Post edited: Sep 3 2009, 7:37 AM EDT
"Well hello crying dove...you know thats one of my favourite australian poems and authors - Dorothea McKellar.
Many thanks for that...you are aussie too then?"
No mate, I am a Yank. I have had the opportunity over the last 10 years to meet many fine people from down under. Chat with many dally on a VOIP program. I am familiar with Dorthea from a couple of years back. A friend from Gosnells City,SW asked me if I could locate the poem for her. Please enjoy some of the links on my profile.
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bellswebster
bellswebster
4. RE: My Country
Sep 3 2009, 5:52 PM EDT | Post edited: Sep 3 2009, 5:52 PM EDT
I will, thanks for the invite.
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