Styling The Man

Oh Australia

I LOVE HER FAR HORIZONS – It’s been five months since my return to New York City, from the gorgeousness of Australia, and I can’t stop thinking of her. Her natural splendor took root in my heart, for which my heart refuses to let go. What a country! What a culture of people, so alive and engaging with the world.

The most difficult part has been culling down the photographs to the ones I want to post. I have so many and I’ve have been so busy-time has eluded me. But I promise, it’s worth the wait. For now, here is a frame of one of her majestic sunsets. This was life for me every day and I had no complaints! To really give you a little idea, of how I felt during my stay in Australia, I wanted to share with you, “My Country” by Australian poet Dorothea Mckellar. I think she summed it up best.

To be continued…

Australia-2012 ©Charles David

(1885–1968)

an iconic poem about Australia

The love of field and coppice,Of green and shaded lanes,Of ordered woods and gardens Is running in your veins.Strong love of grey-blue distance,Brown streams and soft, dim skies –I know but cannot share it,My love is otherwise.I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror –
The wide brown land for me!

The stark white ring-barked forests,
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon,
Green tangle of the brushes
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops,
And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When, sick at heart, around us
We see the cattle die –
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the rainbow gold,
For flood and fire and famine
She pays us back threefold.
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land –
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand –
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.