I hear your voice when winds blow hard, and howl around sheds we built in the yard,
I search each time in hope that tonight, I’ll find and know that you’re really alright.
The bitter years have come and gone, and memories remain and linger on
The dog and I know you’re here somewhere, and we search and search, but you’re not there.
We wed in Spring in the pale yellow light of a gibbous moon moving low out of sight,
A lad and lass, a bed and love, and a future to build, not a cloud above.
A life … Read the rest
Continue Reading →
From my window looking west there’s not a lot to cheer,
For the countryside in deep distress wilts slowly year by year,
Year by year a drought holds fast, the land is all bone-dry,
And graziers bleeding in their souls must watch their cattle die.
Few had raise the issue of the scourge that drought can be,
For many decades end on end they’d cursed the rains they’d see
drawn boldly on the weather maps predicting naught but flood,
but time went by and river pools succumbed to encroaching mud.
The rainfall stopped, the crops grew tall, the … Read the rest
Continue Reading →
When the fog rolls in covering the trees out the back,
When the murk is so thick he can’t see his old shack
that’s stood for years through the Summer’s harsh stare
creaking in the heat while the temperatures flare.
When his mind sees the world through a blanket of mist,
When visibility falters, he gets his tail in a twist.
Then he wonders if she still leaves home for a jog
down by the school yard in the deepening fog.
He remembers the day they met near his shack
when he gave her some water from the tap out … Read the rest
Continue Reading →
Reviewed by Ian Lipke
Miles Taylor’s mammoth study of the relationship between Queen Victoria and India is a pleasing, authoritative, engaging, scholarly piece of writing that should be read by all those with an interest in ways that a queen, as distinct from the government she heads, builds and maintains the governance and respect of a colonial people. The title is critical in understanding that we are discussing a personal engagement. It is the ways in which the Queen engages with India that is important.
The book is structured around three themes, each interwoven through the chronological narrative. The first … Read the rest
Continue Reading →
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke
Charles Frazier, in his new novel Varina, takes the reader back to the American Civil War years in America, just as he did in Cold Mountain, a very well-known novel of the recent past.
The novel switches from the early 20th Century back to the 1840s quite seamlessly as we journey with mixed-race teacher, James Blake, as he searches for information about his earlier life.
Walking down a street one day he heard snatches of a song which triggered hazy memories of an earlier time and feelings of love. Later on reading a marbled … Read the rest
Continue Reading →
