Ties that bind, loop back through long-gone days,
wind around the past and present, reach for future,
with all the cellular remembering and faded images;
full dried words, replete, on yellowed papers.
Lives left huddled in their dark imaginings and fears,
oceans crossed in salted, sickened heavings,
new soil dusting on tired skirts and footprints;
great southern land did whisper through their dreams.
No more the desperate, driven, snow-bound seasons,
beyond the stinking, sickened cities crowding close,
into a world where sun shines, bright-lit freedoms;
courage casts adrift, for countless, myriad reasons.
Wide, horizon endless, skies cerulean, deepest blue,
red earth spread near, and driven onto heady distance,
as eucalypts did drift redolent, strange and ancient;
so did they walk into a world full alien and new.
http://dversepoets.com/2014/06/10/poetics-your-family-history/
wind around the past and present, reach for future,
with all the cellular remembering and faded images;
full dried words, replete, on yellowed papers.
Lives left huddled in their dark imaginings and fears,
oceans crossed in salted, sickened heavings,
new soil dusting on tired skirts and footprints;
great southern land did whisper through their dreams.
No more the desperate, driven, snow-bound seasons,
beyond the stinking, sickened cities crowding close,
into a world where sun shines, bright-lit freedoms;
courage casts adrift, for countless, myriad reasons.
Wide, horizon endless, skies cerulean, deepest blue,
red earth spread near, and driven onto heady distance,
as eucalypts did drift redolent, strange and ancient;
so did they walk into a world full alien and new.
http://dversepoets.com/2014/06/10/poetics-your-family-history/
"they walk into a world full alien and new."
ReplyDeleteThis is a brilliant observation, Ros. We tend to downplay the hardships they had endured. The difficulty becoming "new", re-inventing themselves. I appreciate this piece greatly. Thank you.
Great visuals. The structure and rhyme also help take me to those "long-gone days." Really nice.
ReplyDeletewalt pointed out my fav line....the alien and new...what awe there must have been those first new explorers that stepped foot ona new country...so much to take in...so much danger as well...but...
ReplyDeleteAn excellent piece of poetics; loved the line /new soil dusting on tired skirts & footprints; a wondrous tale of exodus, rebirth of sorts; fascinating peek; thanks.
ReplyDeleteIt takes courage and hope to make such a journey - I love your description of the landscape, the red earth.......the wide horizon.
ReplyDeletethe word pictures are beautiful....the final line perfectly captures the spirit of the
ReplyDeletefirst settlers...
I admire people who can leave for another country where the sun shines and freedoms lit up so brightly ~ Alien and new world and someday, a place to call home ~ Thanks for participating Ros ~
ReplyDeleteTo leave across a journey like that, it's a wonderful thing to find such bliss at the end of the ordeal.. those skies and the earth.. lovely rhythm in your piece.
ReplyDeleteWonderful description of pioneer experience...i felt the salted, sickened heavings and the alien red earth...epic post!
ReplyDeleteI love this view of that time and the people who forged ahead no matter what...the nature aspect was so much a part of it!
ReplyDeleteto make a new life against the odds.... that's a pioneer spirit... and I think it transcends the generations.
ReplyDelete