Graham Brunckhorst, Bush Poet
Graham Brunckhorst
I’ve always loved bush poetry
Even before I knew what was a verse
I used to read it at primary school
To remember it I’d have to rehearse
I’d never met a real bush poet
Australia day I saw the ol’banjo
He really put it out there
As he put on a real beaut show
Then I met Bobby Dever
And I really had to laugh
He’s a funny little bastard
As he tore your sides in half
Then I met Geoffrey sharp
He’s really happy fellow
He could recite the phone book
With a voice just like a bellow
Then I met Glenny Palmer
Manfred and his mate the Croc
Ray Essery and Murry Hartin
I’d sure like to keep up with that lot
Then I met another master
And a gentleman to boot
Graham Brunckhorst a bush poet
And wasn’t he a hoot
He had a sense of humour
and he could write a funny line
we got on like a father and son
yes he really was a friend of mine
He could recite from memory
The Man from Snowy River
He knew over 300 poems that
He could spontaneously deliver
The Limestone Creek
and When They Cut it Green
From Tassie to the Top End
There’s no place he hasn’t been
He wrote several books
And had plans to save our nation
He firmly believed that politicians
Were not much of a creation
He wrote letters to em
Told’em what he really thought
He reckoned they’re all bastards
Just in it for the wrought
He could sketch a portrait
And paint a beaut landscape
He taught poetry in schools
from Albany to the Cape
He’s been a ringer and a cutter
A husband and a dad
A builder and a designer
Extremely happy and also sad
I only knew him in the
Last three years of his life
he once told me that the good times
are often followed by strife
I helped him out many times
When his eyesight would fail
The cops were following his scooter
He once thought he’d go to jail
He wanted to help out Judi
When the young bloke knocked her out
He thought it was a travesty
That Coles really mucked her about
He drafted a letter to a lawyer
Addressed to the local Bulletin
He was really really upset
By the predicament she was in
He thought his PC was broken
and things were looking dim
then I’d find a word document
and print it out for him
I’ll really miss his phone calls
of the next quest on his agenda
as he couldn’t see his watch
time was not something to remember
I’m going to miss Graham
I say with tear filled eyes
Every time we lose an old man
Another library dies
04/5/1927 to September 2017
TM Reg 1028534 Poetry in Paradise