46. The BBC and The Night(s) Before Christmas

(An ode to the BBC by yours truly)

T’was a few nights before Christmas and at BBC
They’d just settled down for a nice cup of tea.

With bone china cups, they chatted so nicely,
Their pinkies raised slightly and oh so politely.

When all of a sudden there arose such a clatter
They blinked and they wondered what on earth was the matter

The Head Mod rushed in, red-faced with alarm
The boss said I say old chap do remain calm.

He took a few breaths and then said the Mod
There’s a salacious email from that nasty old sod!

He’s made accusations, oh what shall we do?
Since that big Savile row we really are in the poo!

If we don’t “fix” this it might cause a confaddle
We’ll be up you know what creek without a paddle.

So the suits put their heads together as one
And wondered and thought about what could be done.

Out comes the brandy and port and cigars
For this called for deep thinking to save one’s Khyber Pass.

Now Thread posts! now Spam posts! Now Edit and Fixit!
On Data! on Branches! on Flag and Delete-it!

Christmas was nigh, there was snow and much ice
And visions of Christmas Pud danced passed their eyes.

A decision was made that’s called passing the buck
To close down the Thorn Tree and with any luck

They could go home for Christmas with no-one the wiser
And just shrug it off with a can of Budweiser.

34. This Land of Ours

This land of ours so red and vast
Doth stretch before the eye
And show unto me all the beauty
Of a far and distant past.

Of gums so tall
And eucalypt
They tower o'er me
And sweet their fragrance to inhale
Their beauty for to see.

Oh yes, this precious land of mine
With all your beauty free
And listen to the sweet carol
Of birds in fancy free.

My country you are more to me
Than earth of fire or sky
For I shall love this land of ours
Until the day I die.

3. The Red Earthed Land

The Red Earthed Land

Out in the far far way we went
Along the dusty tracks
To where the sun beat down by day
And the sun slew back by night
Of an ancient land with clay red earth that white men never came
Until the time of sailing ships that change the face of this great land
A face that tweren't the same.

But out there in the dusty red earth desert of the wild
A dark man roamed with childer three and wife and family
The tribe for that is what they were
Lived freely off the land
And tended it with care and love
And doused it with their pains
Of lave and loving of this land

These people dark did dwell
And nurture it with passion true
And keep the land and tell
Their childer all of stories from the
Dreamtime land they came

A dingo calls across the plains
The winds howl across the skies and a tree rustles its leaves
Along the road by a dimly lit way
A waterhole gently laps
There comes a creature of the wild to drink in dissaray
Its tail droops and it takes its fill
Of life to slake its thirst

For in this land of red clay earth and soil and gums so tall
This precious water comes to fill the hollows of the land
With billabongs and coolibahs that stand in majesty
Unto a far horizon of wondrous sights to see.

Australia my country!
You are filled with many strange delights and
Those of great beauty
The cockatoo with snowy breast
And parakeets so bold
Their colours like a rainbow
That dance with blue and gold.

A tale to you now will I tell
Of raging thunderstorms
And lightning strikes and floodings
In this land of contrast fell
With heavy downpour
To a dry and arid land
A land so vast and huge and wide
A land with desert storms.

And as I looked up to the sky and saw the clouds did burst
With fervent prayer I asked for more to come to feed the earth
The lightning flashed across the skies
With bright and silver light
And landed on a tall ghost gum
That set the night alight
Then came the men with sacks of cloth
To fight this rolling blaze
A blaze so huge it rolled and span
Out of control of man
All through the nights these men of old
Did fight with all their strength
Their might and power of less accord
To quench the mighty length
Of bushfires burning, burning, burning
That did engulf the land

And after it did take its toll
Of foresty and flora
There are the blackened stumps,
And carcasses fills the nostrils
With burnt out aura

But then, then look! a new shoot comes forth
Comes forth to regenerate
And it will grow, grow tall and strong
Just like its parent grew
For fire is needed to replace
The old ones with the new.

And should you go one starry night
Out in to the far beyond
Remember those who came before
Helped make this future land so bright
A land so filled with contrast
Of power and beauty and might.

BlossomFlowerGirl

1. My Country

This is my first post and it's really sort of a test post so I can see which colours to choose for this blog. And what better way than to have as an opening post than an excerpt from one of my favourite poems. We all know the line "I love a sunburnt country..."

My Country
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me!

Dorothea Mackellar (1885 - 1968)