Emily Gap, east of Alice Springs, an ancient ceremonial site of the Aranda Aborigines.
Max's Poems
Max’s Poems
A TOUCH OF THE OUTBACK, which is a selection of poems and stories by the Western Australian bushman-prospector, Max March, is now released in a privately published booklet prepared by his daughter, Sue, and son-in-law, Mick, of Carnarvon.
This reveals quite another Max to the man I used to chat with on occasions. But that’s not unusual, I suppose, for bush poets. I wish I had known of his interest. It was an interest we might have shared.
I like his “little poems” best, the spontaneous things, such as “Just Me,” and “Old People’s Place.” No attempt at rhyming, just the essential thoughts, the impressions and feelings of the moment: things scribbled down and forgotten.
All of this reveals another man to the one I used to chat with along the way.
It is interesting, too, to see that we often camped in the same out-of-the-way places, at Mundabullungana, Mangaroon, Minnie Creek, etc. Our tracks mingled without us knowing.
Here is a four-lined piece from the collection:
To have little and nothing of much
Makes life so easy to dream
But reality is a dog, swag,
A hot cup of tea and just me.
And another, “Old People’s Place” …
The old people’s place is a lonely place
Hills lay there untouched and hardly seen
Crumbling slowly through millions of years
They frame the flats, creeks and gullies
The broken volcanic rock in silence
A dead past they watch.
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