John O'Brien's Poetry, by title

• A Stranger in the Church

  'Twas Callagan who jerked the thumb-
  A mute, interrogating thumb-

  44 lines
• Around the Boree Log

  Oh, stick me in the old caboose this night of wind and rain,
  And let the doves of fancy loose to bill and coo again.

  30 lines, 3 comments
• At Casey's After Mass

  There's a weather-beaten sign-post where the track turns towards the west,
  Through the tall, white, slender timber, in the land i love the best.

  99 lines
• Calling to Me

  Through the hush of my heart in the spell of its dreaming
  Comes the song of a bush boy glad-hearted and free;

  20 lines, 2 comments
• Come, Sing Australian songs to me!

  Come, Little One, and sing to me
  A song our big wide land to bless,

  68 lines
• Could I hear the Kookaburras once again

  May a fading fancy hover round a gladness that is over?
  May a dreamer in the silence rake the ashes of the past?

  41 lines
• Currajong

  Old Father Pat! They'll tell you still with mingled love and pride
  Of stirring deeds that live and thrill the quiet country-side;

  60 lines
• His Father

  We meet him first in frills immersed,
  By everyone caressed and nursed,

  110 lines
• Honeymooning from the Country

  To the rooms where I am dining in the glaring city's day
  Come the happy honeymooners from the country far away,

  54 lines
• Josephine

  The presbytery has gone to pot since this house-keeper came;
  She's up-to-date and stylish; but the place is not the same

  76 lines
• Laughing Mary

  With cheeks that paled the rosy morn
  She bounded o'er the heather,

  36 lines
• Making Home

  No, you don't quite get the meaning when the fun is at its height
  With the neighbours at the breakfast, and the world is warm and bright;

  77 lines
• Moryah

  “Wisha, where is he goin' to now
  With the hat on the back of the poll.

  35 lines
• My Curate's Motor Bike

  Before the lad invested we had comfort here indeed;
  Our lives were as an open book, and he who ran might read;

  88 lines
• Norah O'Neill

  That Norah O'Neill is a sthreel,*
  And I’m talking the way that I feel,

  27 lines
• One by One

  With trust in God and her good man
  She settled neath the spur;

  48 lines, 2 comments
• Peter Nelson's Fiddle

  Do you ever dream you hear it, you who went the lonely track?
  Do you ever hear its simple melodies

  32 lines
• Pitchin' at the Church

  On the Sunday morning mustered,
  Yarning at our ease;

  40 lines
• Said Hanrahan

  "We’ll all be rooned," said Hanrahan
  In accents most forlorn

  84 lines, 2 comments
• Said the white-haired priest

  Said the white-haired priest, "So the boy has come,
  And the old, old dreams are o'er you

  48 lines
• Sing Me A Song

  Sing me a song with the ring of truth in it,
  Sing me a song with the freshness of youth in it.

  14 lines
• Six Brown Boxer Hats

  The hawker with his tilted cart pulled up beside the fence,
  And opened out his wondrous mart with startling eloquence;

  25 lines
• St Patricks Day

  'Tis the greatest splash of sunshine right through all my retrospection
  On the days when fairies brought me golden dreams without alloy,

  88 lines, 1 comment
• Tangmalangmaloo

  The bishop sat in lordly state and purple cap sublime,
  And galvanized the old bush church at Confirmation time;

  30 lines, 1 comment
• Teddo Wells Deceased

  Times I think I'm not the man-
  Must be some mistake.

  90 lines
• Tell me, What''s a girl to do

  Tell me, what's a girl to do
  When the gossoons court and cozen?

  24 lines
• Ten Little Steps and Stairs

  There were ten little Steps and Stairs.
  Round through the old bush home all day

  24 lines
• The Alter Boy

  Now McEvoy was altar-boy
  As long as I remember;

  48 lines
• The Birds will sing again

  She saw The Helper standing near
  When grief and, care oppressed;

  27 lines, 1 comment
• The Careys

  Their new house stood just off the road.
  A fine big brick two-storey,

  132 lines

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