Mary Gilmore

“Anne-Marie Condé, "Afternoon tea with Mary Gilmore", Inside Story (18 June 2024)”

“Moorangoo, the dove, in her high place mourned,And Mulloka, the Water Spirit, turnedIn his shade as he heard her weep,Sad as the lone {{w|Koala}} that cries in his sleepAt the sound of the gun,Asking for pity where pity was none.”

“I am not very patient,  Yet patient I must beWith him beside my pillow  And the babe upon my knee.[...]Strange that I was givenThoughts that soar to heaven,Yet must I sit and keepChildren in their sleep!”

“Emptied of us the land,  Ghostly our going,Fallen, like spears the hand  Dropped in the throwing.{{pb}}We are the lost who went,  Like the cranes, crying;Hunted, lonely, and spent,  Broken and dying.”

“Nurse no long grief,Lest the heart flower no more;Grief builds no barns; its ploughRusts at the door.”

“I shall go as my father went,A thousand plans in his mind,With something still held unspentWhen death lets fall the blind.{{pb}}I shall go as my mother went,The ink still wet on the line:I shall pay no rust as rentFor the house that is mine.”

“Never allow the thoughtless to delcareThat we have no tradition here!”

“"I'm oldBotany Bay;Stiff in the joints,Little to say.{{pb}}I am heWho paved the way,That you might walkAt your ease to-day;[...]I split the rock;I felled the tree:The nation was —Because of me!"{{pb}}Old {{w|Botany Bay}}Taking the sunFrom day to day. ...Shame on the mouthThat would denyThe knotted handsThat set us high!”

“I have no thunder in my words,  Thunder is much too high;But I can see as far as birds,  And feel the wind go by.{{pb}}And I can follow through the grass  The darling-breasted quail;For, though things great in splendour mass,  I choose the lesser grail.”

“I span and Eve span,A thread to bind the heart of man!”

“I never knew how wide the dark,I never knew the depth of space,I never knew how frail a bark,How small is man within his place,{{pb}}Not till I heard the swans go by,Not till I marked their haunting cry,Not till, within the vague on high,I watched them pass across the sky. ...”

“Never admit the pain,Bury it deep;Only the weak complain.Complaint is cheap.”

“We are the sons of Australia,Of the men who fashioned the land,We are the sons of the womenWho walked with them, hand in hand;And we swear by the dead who bore us,By the heroes who blazed the trail,No foe shall gather our harvest,Or sit on our stockyard rail.”

“Youth troubles over eternity; age grasps at a day and is satisfied to have even the day.”

“It was, it was a fairy man  Who came to town today."I'll make a cake for sixpence,  If you will pay, will pay."{{pb}}I paid him with a sixpence,  And with a penny, too;He made a cake of rainbows,  And baked it in the dew.[...]He iced it with a moonbeam,  He patterned it with play,And sprinkled it with star-dust  From off the Milky Way.”

“I have grown past hate and bitterness,  I see the world as one;But though I can no longer hate,  My son is still my son.{{pb}}All men at God's round table sit,  And all men must be fed;But this loaf in my hand,  This loaf is my son's bread.”

“It's us two when it's morning,  And us two when it's night;And us two when it's troubled,  And us two when it's bright;{{pb}}And us two don't want nothing  To make life good and true,And lovin'-sweet, and happy,  While us two's got us two.”

“It’s gettin’ bits o’ posies,  ’N’ feelin’ mighty good;A-thrillin’ ’cause she loves you,  An’ wond’rin’ why she should;[...]As if there’s nothin’ mattered,  As if the world was good,As if the Lord was lookin’,  An’ sort o’ understood.”