Max you were there in 1861! young and leaping -golding great nuggets I can
see it -were your dogs stray farm beasts?
-----Original Message-----
From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Max Richards
Sent: 17 October 2012 12:23
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: 'Historical Geography'
Historical Geography
[Warrandyte, near Melbourne]
Below us the Yarra swerves right -
down-stream from where Andersons Creek,
famed an age ago for its gold-rush,*
joins it - swerves to make 'Pound Bend' -
letting part of its water divert
left into a rock-face tunnel
while the river curves back
to almost meet itself.
Clamber down the steep track
to where the tunnel mouth gapes.
I'm moving stiffly on rocks
where once I'd spring and bound
exhilarated by the torrent.
Its tumult is strong today,
renewed by spring rains.
I've no spring left in me.
Exhilarated soberly now,
I watch speeding brown waters
tumble and fan out subsiding
into the river they're rejoining.
Why the tunnel? ** that was
gold fever too - empty
the riverbend bed, clean up
all the gold waiting there!
They say it didn't pay the bills
for engineering, explosives,
and long hard labour.
Everyone moved on.
Some miners' cottages remain,
a picnic ground, tall gums,
newish suburban houses.
Where the pound-keeper long
minded stray farm-beasts, was
returned to wombats and koalas.
That young man kayaking
boldly through the rapids
could have been me -
half an age ago.***
October 2012
*1861
**1870
***1968
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