Just over 30 years ago Julie Meddows, at the time a valley resident, compiled and edited a booklet titled ‘Children of the Valley, a collection of poems. The booklet was published by the Kangaroo Valley P & C Association in 1993, and the present P&C have given me permission to feature the poems in the Voice.
As I was in the valley at the time, and lived next door to the KV School which my three children attended, I knew most of the children featured. Of course, they are now mothers and fathers of their own children, and some no longer live in the valley.
Since there are many poems in the booklet, I thought it appropriate to have published in the Voice, perhaps a couple in each issue, which will take several months of submission. The foreword to the booklet just about sums up the wonderful minds and lives of children aged from 5 to 12 in their own world, so I have reproduced the following from the book.
“When our children pick up a pen to draw, or a brush to paint, we witness art in its purest form. That splatted dandelion is an orchid, the stick person is someone dearly loved, the spiked blob, a brilliant moon.
When children write poetry they paint pictures with words, brushing in that same raw honesty. As we grow older these primitive pictures fade and poetry loses its colour, its essential truth, and more often its simplicity.
The poetry of our children’s world is irreplaceable.
In this collection of poems by the children of Kangaroo Valley, the child in you will live again, refreshed by the beauty, tragedy, and humour of a child’s world, painted in words.
It is also a tribute to our teachers at Kangaroo Valley Public School and the parents who encourage and inspire our children to write poetry.
We hope you enjoy the collection of poems.”
Sadly, Julie Meddows passed away a couple of years ago.
Bruce Preston
Drought by Brigitte Ross (11)
In outback Australia where the land is dry,
There is red, orange and blue but no grey sky.
Where lakes and rivers run all over the land,
You can usually scoop up dirt in your hand.
Drought is a normal for them and it lasts for a while,
Drought there, will dry up a river like the Nile.
The people and the animals just have to stare,
While the clouds and the sky have no droplets to spare.
So when you’re in the city with water to waste,
Think about those people and what they have faced.
Think of the life of the people living normally in the outback,
Where happily they live but water they lack.
No Rain by Kathryn Morgan (9)
It hadn’t rained for thirty days
Into the sky the animals gazed,
a lizard on a dry red stone
sitting by himself alone.
Wonder if it’s going to rain,
If we’re going to drink again.
It hadn’t rained for thirty-one days
Into the sky the animals gaze.
In a gum tree a koala sits,
Saying “this really is the pits”.
Is that a rain cloud? Just black smoke.
We need rain us Aussie folk.
It hadn’t rained for thirty two days,
Into the sky the animals gaze.
Kangaroo went hoping by,
In her pouch, a hot meat pie.
Come on Hughie, please be fair,
We need rain..I declare.
It hadn’t rained for thirty three days
Into the sky the animals gaze.
Then all of a sudden the animals praise,
rain was falling from the sky
From dark rain clouds, way up high.
