Into the Fire: Poems from Australia

By Sean Kennedy

The poems have diverse styles of rhyme and blank verse. I've experienced several crises in my time on the planet; some of which have a humorous touch, but others feature the grim or regretful side. Readers may interpret them as they wish.

The complexities of cricket are laid bare, and I was never any good at the game. But I was a world record holder as part of the crowd of more than ninety thousand at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1961 when Australia played the West Indies.

Finally, there are some whimsical verses drawn on topics like the ocean, home life, psychology, and the Arctic.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Dec 5, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524520052

Sean Kennedy

Sean Kennedy is an Australian geologist who has spent much of his career exploring for minerals in the outback. Most of Australia has been covered. He discovered lime and gypsum deposits—the latter being sighted on a commercial flight from Adelaide to Melbourne. Sean was born in Scotland but raised and educated in Tasmania. During quiet times in the resources sector, he taught geology in South Australia and Scotland. Sean lives in Adelaide and is married with two children and four grandchildren. This man chopped down a telephone box Was held at gunpoint by the cops Spent some hours within a cell Please explain, let's hear him tell.

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Copyright © 2016 by Sean Kennedy.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2016919895

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-5245-2007-6

                Softcover         978-1-5245-2006-9

                eBook               978-1-5245-2005-2

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Rev. date: 12/05/2016

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Contents

Harts Range

The Ballad of the Dung Beetle

The Deep

The Ballad of Danny Wise*

The Cricket Match

Howzat?

The Fast Bowler

The Rattle of the Bails

Tasmanian Bush Fires

Glasses

Hartz Mountains in Winter

The Fly

Last Stand in Narrandera

The Mortar

The Phosphate Train

Alas Poor André

The Seagull

Snowy Mountains Memoirs

The Trap

The Queue

The Ballad of Nanuq

Notes on the Poems

Acknowledgements

Location Map

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Harts Range

Once in nineteen eighty-eight I worked in the Territory

By which I mean the Northern one and not the ACT.

About three hours by road we were, northeast of Alice Springs

We camped in among the cattle and spoke of gems and things.

My companion, the Professor, on types of precious stone

He was the country’s expert, ahead of the field alone.

The Prof was nearly seventy with doubts about his health

But was prepared to take his chance and find some hidden wealth.

The camp was poorly chosen, we arrived there after dark

All night we smelt the dust and dung, it was no grassy park.

We heard the dingos howl and the cattle’s answering roar

We did not have a peaceful night camped at Entia Bore.

Next morning over breakfast we mapped out the best route

Most was by graded sandy tracks but creek beds were a brute.

We hired a Toyota 4Runner, a sturdy four-wheel drive

It had one flaw, however, which put at risk our lives.

More of this story later, let me tell why we were here

The Gemstone Corporation had just whispered in our ear.

‘Go search for precious garnets in the rugged, dry Harts Range

There the host rock is a limestone, the geology quite strange.’

We found garnets in the limestone, they were of brown and red

And eroded from the host rock, they lay in the creek bed.

These semiprecious