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Understand Old One


What if you came back now
To our new world, the city roaring
There on the old peaceful camping place
Of your red fires along the quiet water,
How you would wonder
At towering stone gunyas high in air
Immense, incredible;
Planes in the sky over, swarms of cars
Like things frantic in flight.

Notes

* gunya - aboriginal home

"Reproduced with permission of John Wiley
and Sons, Australia".

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Comments

1 - 12 of 12
  • rbruce
    May 30
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    Even in my own life there have been progressions [?] I wonder about. I used to ride the mail train to the big city and the bushland was only 30 minutes from central Railway in the middle of it. Now the endless string of wall to wall houses and buildings expends for miles and miles. Thank the lord and freedom of choice that I live elsewhere.


  • I-Like-Rhymes Moderators member
    May 25
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    Strange to wonder how many layers lie beneath our modern cities like the alyers under an onion skin. What would happen if a representative of each of those layers were present at a grand council?


  • April 5
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    wow!!!!

    From guest tara (contact)
    soooooooooo good im only 11 and i enjoyed it ,it explained so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!great job Oodgeroo Noonuccal


  • February 25
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    From guest hitry (contact)
    sad and truly peaceful


  • Ahkam Moderators member
    January 31
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    nice

    The poem is all about the changing world, with time everything changes, if we cam back again after a hundred and two years, how we will feel, I can imagine like Stephen Leacock, 'It seemed unfair that other writers should be able at will to drop into a sleep of four or five hundred years, and to plunge head-first into a distant future and be a witness of its marvels.'
    this poem reminds me of the wonderful Allegory,'The Man in Asbestos: An Allegory of the Future' by leacock.Read the story first and then read this poem,,,it's like a cocktail cup. Here is the link;
    http://www.online-literature.com/stephen-leacock/nonsense-novels/11/
    both are interconnected.



  • November 5, 2008
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    loving you pems

    From guest amber (contact)
    i love your poems my favourite would be understand old one its fantastic


  • May 7, 2008
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    From guest wishintreeUK (contact)
    Yes, I wonder... what would the older generation who are no longer here say to the so called "modern world"? the last line sums this up our world today so very well... "like things frantic in flight" no time to really notice the simple things in life, yet when we think of it, it is those very things that bring us the most joy! I enjoyed reading this. Katie


  • May 26, 2007
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    hi

    From guest amy (contact)
    good


  • May 1, 2007
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    i love it

    From guest tania-kelly (contact)
    i love this poem so muuccchhhh

  • ea Moderators member
    February 25, 2006
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    This no longer shows the ouroboros that once was here.  What a shame.  Did this poet do the painting of the snake that is shown as the bio pic?  

  • ea Moderators member
    November 21, 2005
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    I like the ouroboros. I like when the poems are illustrated like this.


  • November 21, 2005
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    great poem, inspiring stuff. Makes me want to write poetry!!


  • November 20, 2005
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    Just fantastic! She is so good.


  • July 12, 2005
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    love all the poems i read gooooood stuff

  • Nam
    March 17, 2005
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    Seems like a description from any place that anyone could be at at any given moment, this being Noonuccal's apparent residence and what she sees and is relaying upon the 'page'.

    I feel there's a further perception, another inclination, a question and she has answered it already.

    A good piece that Noonuccal has written here.


  • March 14, 2005
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    kath has grat insparation towards her famous written poems about her cultures and experiences... top poet


  • October 27, 2004
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    it was interesting

  • RockStarAngel7
    August 1, 2004
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    That was very different. It was good though. I assume it's like someone coming back to earth or something. I dunno, but it weas really good, i understood the basis of it

  • buRning Memory
    August 1, 2004
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    wow... this paints a nice picture! i reallly like this! it was writin along time ago lol my mom wasnt even born then (no effence)!
    much love to ya!
    this is really great!


    katie!!!

1 - 12 of 12