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Many times I wish I was back at home,
a place where I’m always free to roam,
where blue Aussie skies are overhead,
and wherever I stop I can lay my head.
I long for the lost freedom there found,
travelling over dusty sunburnt ground,
where water is now but a sacred word
and deathly silence is quite often heard.
Where beaches go way beyond my sight,
and chirping crickets sing all bloody night,
the comforting sound big breakers make,
when on the shore they dump and break.
The clear blue-green crystal of rolling surf,
suburban houses floating on a sea of turf,
where kerbing frames the whole neat lot,
and people smile “g’day” on their daily trot.
The hours toiled over a smoking barbecue,
the grating call of neighbour’s pet cockatoo
and mossies trying for a bloody pint or two,
as I lovingly sip my potent home made brew.
But I am in a hot far off land across the sea,
where circumstances won’t let me live so free,
a prisoner of mind and promise earlier made,
that on my conscience is so heavily weighed.
Though it really isn’t so fuckin bad I suppose,
for the sheilas have nice legs and petite toes,
and I can live like a king on my pension small,
but no one savvies slang or my dry Aussie drawl.
So I try to keep busy every day in so many ways,
cant read the paper or watch soapy TV plays,
eat food which in Oz we wouldn’t give the dog,
but cheap is the price of a bottle of local grog.
I miss the land of fish ‘n chips, pies and stew,
where the language can get so black and blue,
where the “f” word is never a terrible disgrace,
or in public to quietly kiss or a friend embrace.
So the culture is different from what we know
and an Aussie with pride I’ll continue to grow,
so I truly have the best of both worlds you see
as I visit Oz each year with Toy along with me.
.
Author notes
A temporary condition that happens to all when away from home ...
- If you are an Aussie Come into the Par group list • next in list
A contest entry
- One for the Aussies... by Pandorea.
450 points, ended April 25, 2008, 6 entries
Gold trophy winner
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest - Non Winning Pre-Write/End line Rhyme Only by piccola.
600 points, ended April 12, 2008, 36 entries
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest - Where's my stinkin' trophy? by Great Cthulhu.
1500 points, ended April 25, 2008, 47 entries
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
Please tell me what you think
Comments
1 - 14 of 14
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Aussie Parlour Group Reading List ~
Congrats on the Gold this has won
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I love Australia, though in Summer I wanna run far away lol but this made me worry about how I might react if I'm away too long
This is awesome mate, truly is
♥
Stay safe
~Manda
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There is no place like home, and when we grow up, move away, have our own family and new ome, we still remember those days when we lived with our parents and wish we could enjoy those carefree times with little responsibilities. Enjoyable read. Nice gold trophy too. COngratulations.
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I feel the heartsong, Bazza, and the yen for wide open blue. Never having been to Austrailia, I still get such a sense of warmth and openness about the people simply by reading the works here on AP of Aussie poets. They seem to have an innate charm about them as azure as their Aussie skies.
Hopefully, with home in your heart, the home sickness abates. A terrific and poignant penning! ~K
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What an excellent tribute to a beautiful home and way of life. Nicely done! (I can almost hear the accent while I read!) Impressive write, I do hope you get to visit more often. Thanks for entering.
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great
This is a great poem. The way the words flow and I feel your longing for home in your use of words and phrasing. I loved it. Keep up the good work.
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I have felt homesick for my own country. It is the little things that you miss, and the big ones, like one's native language, and picking up the phone to call a friend without worrying about the time zone.
Your lines have great images of Australia. I like "chirping crickets sing all bloody night", change it to peepers and that's my home in Canada.
Thanks for posting this in the group!
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No place like home
Dear Barry,
To us Aussies Australia is the best place in the world I must agree. I don't know how I would cope if I went to another country to live. The only place I would ever consider is Christchurch in New Zealand, I've been there three times and love it more every time I visit. But I don't expect that to ever happen.
I enjoyed reading your poem very much my dear Aussie friend.
Love to you.
Joan
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It must be wonderful to miss a place so much. Maybe I've never loved a place enough to miss it...the love for your homeland shone through here. Thank you for this entry.
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your second stanza got me i live outback nsw and we are just now getting water coming down the darling.
i thoroughly enjoyed this.
Mia
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"Where beaches go way beyond my sight,
and chirping crickets sing all bloody night,"
those lines made me lol. so perfect.
i love this! so brilliantly australian. man i lvee this country. and this poem.
thanks for entering. -
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Wishing
You will never know just how much you love it until you have left it ... and the longer you leave it, the longer you will miss and love it, for we take so bloody much for granted. You say "A temporary condition that happens to all when away from home ..." but it is only temporary if you are going back, but when it looks permanently away except for short visits, it is bloody hard ........... bloody hard, I can tell you.
Bazza
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I hope someday you get to go back, you really love it in Aussie. I've always wanted to visit, the culture and people I have met from there always had a charm about them that drew me in.
The last 3 stanzas made me laugh. God bless the overly processed country we live in*much sarcasm* America has it's benefits but its cultures so mixed it lacks depth.
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Bazza, this is briliant! I love Aussie stuff, love the Aussies (except for those eleven b*st*rds in white!
), and I love the honest lilt of your poems!
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Eleven reasons
Thanks Mairi what an honour to have such a lovely comment from such an accomplished poet, but maybe we should use a haggis instead of a cricket ball so that they can see what we are sending down to them ..... Maybe they should have one stump and we use six to even it up ........ hell Mairi, I better shut up, because the good luck cant go on forever and our blokes are gettin older yae kin.Bloody hell, we would realy have to take a shelacking then.
Bazza
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