Sonrock

by CD Richards

Beneath a jewel-encrusted sky
the campfire burns, the flames climb high.
With damper and our billy tea
we are at peace, our souls set free.

We're far removed from all the noise,
eschewing electronic toys,
in nature's glory, here we bask;
"Is this the life?" — no need to ask.

We play guitar and sing a song
about how humans got it wrong,
exchanging trees for parking lots,
you know the song — just join the dots.

Do you feel like you've lost the race?
Has present-day's frenetic pace
produced an overwhelming sense
that modern life's just too intense?

If that's the case, then why don't you
pull up a sonrock, grab a pew.
Our church is broad, and by our fire
we welcome all with a desire

for peace and harmony to rule;
no need for guards in this, our school.
Our lessons are not hard to learn—
strike up a match and watch it burn.

Its light, 'tis true, may not last long,
but you, my friend, would be quite wrong
in thinking, even just a whit
that darkness can extinguish it.

With tea consumed and damper gone,
our voices hoarse from too much song;
we douse the flames, and by moonlight
each bids the others a good night.

Then, drifting off, we hear the breeze,
and creatures scuttling through the trees.
Each sound, a new awareness brings,
of our place in the scheme of things.

Our thoughts return to life at home,
but here, in nature's astrodome,
the feeling gripping us is strong—
this is the place where we belong.

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Recognized

Today's word: sonrock (n.) a fireside seat.

Damper: a traditional Australian bread, historically prepared by swagmen, drovers, stockmen and other travellers. It consists of a wheat flour based bread, traditionally baked in the coals of a campfire or in a camp oven.

Billy tea: A billycan is a lightweight cooking pot in the form of a metal bucket commonly used for boiling water, making tea or cooking over a campfire.

A video which I feel mirrors the experience spoken of here:

And a song referred to in the poem:

My much-treasured Christmas present for 2017 is a book by Paul Anthony Jones: "The cabinet of linguistic curiosities". Each page contains a descriptive story about some obscure or archaic word. It occurred to me it would be a fun exercise to try and write, each day, a poem featuring the "word of the day" from the book.

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A fireside seat

A chapter in the book A Potpourri of Poetic Curiosities

Sonrock

by CD Richards

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