Thanks guys. No competitions recently. I was published in LIP magazine a few years ago.
I did some competitions as a kid - I was published four times in the
special forever books and I won a Stumpy Bush Poetry Award
in the under 18s when i was 17
for a poem I've never shared here actually.
Here it is then-
My Hearts Abode
Sitting in the tour bus
I am to the city bound
Speeding away from my bush home-
From where my heart is found.
Where mopokes call high in the river gums,
That by the water stand,
Wallaby and ‘roo come down to drink-
Sheep graze upon scorched land
Black sticky pools dot the highway
Summers heat melting the blacktop tar,
Haze darkens the horizon-
Lights illusion covers it with rippling bars.
Kelpies round up the cattle
Heelers move them along
Down the dirt roads they amble-
Magpie warbles his evening song.
I only leave so that I may return,
A diploma in my hand,
To my hearts abode-
Back to my family’s land.
City lights hold no fascination
The wondrous sights I do not care to see
There’s only one thing I can think of-
My bush home where I am free.
Oh home, so far from the city,
From where smog and noise abound,
Place of wide skies, enormous vistas-
Home where my heart is found.