"WalkaboutsVerse" - Walkabouts: travels and conclusions in verse, by David Franks
Dormant Last read · last published · next check
Read 10 hours ago and current, but nothing has been published for 2 years.
by David Franks - poet & folk-musician of Manchester, England, U.N. NAVIGATION (A summary of my full web-presence, plus gigs, etc., is at - davidfranks.blogspot.com .) Via chronological blogs (using 2003 dates), CONTENTS (below, with each poem linked separately), plus the "Newer Post," "Home" (clicking on above "footprint" does the same) and "Older Post" (or < Home > on mobile-version) links on…
part one (longish blank-verse poem - all the rest are below 50 lines) Poem 1 of 230: 0 - 19: HELPED BY “THE OLDS”; SCRIBED 2000 A.D. Another branch on ye tall English Tree (Having three grandparents Mancunian, And one grandfather up from Colchester), I was born in Manchester’s Saint Mary’s, Just before kick-off, on the World Cup Day (Nine hundred years from that other battle; And three hundred…
part two WALKABOUT WITH MY PEN (travels) Poem 2 of 230: WALKABOUT WITH MY PEN (TUNE - IN THE KEY OF C MAJOR: C2 F3 G2 G3 A2 A3 G2 G3 C2 G3 A2 A3 G2 G3 F2 F3 C2 A3 A2 A3 G2 G3 F2 F3 C2 G3 A2 G3 A2 G3 F2 F3 C2 F3 G2 G3 A2 A3 G2 G3 C2 F3 G2 G3 A2 G1 F1 F3) Once drove an old sedan up north, From a place in Sydney to Cairns; Then to Kuranda I went forth, By train, to look without set plans. (Whistle…
Poem 3 of 230: PICTURES Photographs, and (more so) painted- Pictures of people and places, For ends, involve - in some cases - Adjustment of what was gathered. With restrained artistic licence (To make metre and rhyme with sense), All matters related here - Save the love-songs, to be clear - Did happen to me, no fear; And time-ordered they appear. (C) David Franks 2003 Photographs of English…
Poem 4 of 230: PICTURING SYDNEY A good place to start is Sydney Tower, With its enthralling panoramic feast: Olympic grounds - west; to north - the harbour; And beautiful beaches - north- and south-east. From what is quite a jumbled C.B.D., A nice walk is through Botanic Gardens To the harbour, Opera House, then the Quay - But, of other good options, there are tens. (C) David Franks 2003 Sydney…
Poem 5 of 230: STATE TO STATE (TUNE - IN THE KEY OF C MAJOR: C2 F2 G2 F3 C2 F2 G2 F3 C2 F2 G2 F3 C2 F2 G2 F3 F2 G2 F2 C3 F2 G2 F2 C3 F2 G2 F2 C3 C2 F2 F2 F3 - slow then fast ) From Sydney Town, In uni. break, I drove south-west To earnings make Onion picking, On the fields Of Echuca, That year’s yields. After day’s work, From Y.H.A., A group of us Would not delay To walk on down To the dirt rim Of…
Poem 6 of 230: THE PICKER While picking onions at Echuca, Betimes I came across a Man who was, he said, by trade a picker. A compact and stocky physique had he; Kind he was to first-time me - Advising, “You should pick ‘em on your knee.” And then he told me of his long-kept plan Of travel, by caravan, To pick ripened crops, over a wide span. But workers’ rates, I found, were not so fair - Twenty…
Poem 7 of 230: RECENT HISTORY There’s a place called Sovereign Hill (Nigh the city of Ballarat), With gold-rush representations - And they’re authentic ones at that. You can pan for gold at the creek, Write some lines with inkwell and quill, See bread baked the colonial way Or a blacksmith at his anvil. There’s a (pre-plastics) bowling lane (With everything made in wood), A painted-photo studio,…
Poem 8 of 230: CRONULLA South of Sydney, Sand and sea - That’s Cronulla. Surfies and girls, Sunbleached curls - At Cronulla. The promenades, The lifeguards - That’s Cronulla. A modern mall, Flats stand tall - At Cronulla. (C) David Franks 2003 From flights into SYD in 2012 and 2016 atop Shark Island surfies; spring 2015 North Cronulla Beach; spring 2017 From Peryman Square; spring 2016 Nth.…
Poem 9 of 230: THE CAMELLIA GARDENS In Sydney’s Sutherland Shire, There’s a relaxing place to see: It’s called the Camellia Gardens, And one can wander round for free. Down and along an escarpment, Meanders a thin stony path; Beside which grow the camellias - Beaut. autumn-blooms the aftermath. With the evergreen-camellias Are a range of native species; And, atop the leafy hillside, A shop sells…
