FOLK COLLECTION 11: The Skaggs Foundation Cowboy Poetry Collection

Saddle For A Throne

FC 11 O-13

285

Will Ogilvie

Barley-Grass

Green fields there are in Scotland of rye-grass and of clover, but there are richer pastures that I have ridden over, wide leagues of waving

rains, harvest, sky, whispers, die, stalks

Saddle For A Throne

FC 11 O-13

287

Will Ogilvie

A Wind From The West

The wind that fires the blood came leaping in from Westward, over stone and stake and stud, with the roar of reeling dust-wrack

incense, trains, honours, sea, kiss

Saddle For A Throne

FC 11 O-13

288

Will Ogilvie

The New Moon

"New Moon tonight!" you will bear them say, turning their eyes to the glint of gold; but this, as you know is their quaint little way- for the Moon she is centuries old!

sky, eager, foam, steers, silvery, sail

Saddle For A Throne

FC 11 O-13

290

Will Ogilvie

The Garden Of Night

The Night is a far spreading garden and all through the hours glisten and glitter and sparkle her wonderful flowers. First the great moon-rose full blooming the great bed of stars

flowers, towers, thief, lighthouse, season, cliff, poisonous

Saddle For A Throne

FC 11 O-13

291

Will Ogilvie

A Summer Evening

Dusk o' the night comes down like wings; Silent are birds that the day found blithe, the soft low breeze of evening brings the far-off chime of hone on scythe.

moon, drone, dusk, alone

Saddle For A Throne

FC 11 O-13

292

Will Ogilvie

Steeds Of The Mist

Steeds, O Steeds of the morning mist, whose halters none but the wind may twist, whose soft white flanks may feel no spur but the breeze that is setting the woods a-stir;

God, fleet, mountain bar, heart, pasture

Saddle For A Throne

FC 11 O-13

293

Will Ogilvie

Drought

My road is fenced with the bleached, white bones and strewn with the blind, white sand, beside me a suffering, dumb world moans on the breast of a lonely land.

beast, dumb, guard, rains, sword, dance

Saddle For A Throne

FC 11 O-13

295

Will Ogilvie

The Trees

Recalling the hours of our playtime, the hours of our labour and ease, and the bush in the night and the daytime, my thoughts wander back to the trees.

taxes, hunt, bells, ashes, dreams

Saddle For A Throne

FC 11 O-13

296

Will Ogilvie

Beyond The Barrier

Are you tired of the South land, comrade- of the smoke and the city's din, and the roar of the chiding ocean when the sobbing tide comes in?

birth, poison, kiss, maid, wine, blaze, comrades

Saddle For A Throne

FC 11 O-13

298

Will Ogilvie

King Barwon

With tresses in disorder, with ravening, reaching arms I cross the trembling border to waste your western farms; To steal your sheep and cattle-

flood, forces, blood, storms, trouble, cattle

Saddle For A Throne

FC 11 O-13

300

Will Ogilvie

The White Ibis

When the fierce Barwon from the Border brings his massed batalions to the drought's defeat, above his pathway, with white folded wings I dream in the noon's heat.

threat, farms, alarms, drift, wings, dead

Saddle For A Throne

FC 11 O-13

303

Will Ogilvie

A World Away

It's many a league to the Leeuwin Light and the Darling bends are a world away; But I've ridden there in a dreamfu night and back ere the break of day.

memory, saddle, spur, vow, friend, together, stockyard

Saddle For A Throne

FC 11 O-13

303

Will Ogilvie

Gallant And Gay

In the bushland far away we were gallant, we were gay; Mixed our labour with our laughter; Cared but little what came after;

careless, lands, misfortune, bolder, fun

Saddle For A Throne

FC 11 O-13

304

Will Ogilvie

To The Overlanders

Take this farewell from one must leave the rowel and the rein before the blue Canoblas weave their snow-white hoods again;

moon, lies, lagoons, sea, stockyard

Saddle For A Throne

FC 11 O-13

306

Will Ogilvie

The Dust Of The Years

With the silks in the sunlight gleaming, with the sheen on the stain coats, with the field round the bush course streaming to the cheer of five hundred throats;

ring, tramp, camp, careless, idle, gay

Saddle For A Throne

FC 11 O-13

307

Will Ogilvie

Bridle Tracks

Out of th years that the locust has eaten, out of the days that are over and fled loom the old roads that the bare hoofs have beaten, wind the old ways that were lovely to tread.

dawn, cloud, pine, irons, shed, dance, glance

Saddle For A Throne

FC 11 O-13

308

Will Ogilvie

Australia

(From "A Handful of Leather") She has hidden each footprint of mine with a swirl of her deifting sand; My camp fires leave no sign and

remember, silver, creek, wonderful, silver, spider spun

Saddle For A Throne

FC 11 O-13

309

Will Ogilvie

Comrades

Do the shearers still go riding up the Warrego to work, where the thurulgoona woolshed flashes silver in the sun? Are the bullock-teams still bending through the coolibahs to Bourke?

dense, scrub, death, sweat, steal

Saddle For A Throne

FC 11 O-13

310

Will Ogilvie

A Bush Night

I remember the tilt of the deep canvas chairs, and the men sitting idle, and out in the paddock a hoof going past and the click of a bridle,

disconsolate, sunflower, summer, mosquito, sandhill

Saddle For A Throne

FC 11 O-13

311

Will Ogilvie

The Hoofs Of The Horses

The hoofs of the horses!-Oh! witching and sweet is the music earth steals from the iron-shod feet! No whisper of lover, no trilling of bird can stir me as hoofs of the horses have stirred.

despair, care, disappointment, fortune, sweet, love, sleep

Saddle For A Throne

FC 11 O-13

312

Will Ogilvie

My Australian Spurs

Old and worn my Bushland spurs hang above my desk today. Memory, on that broom of hers, witchlike bears my heart away over seas that restless roll,

sunlight, golden, mist, obey, friendships

Saddle For A Throne

FC 11 O-13

313

Will Ogilvie

Back To The Border

The face of the Bush, men say, has changed since the far-off days of the "Ninety flood when over the Darling roads we ranged with hope

teams, dust, dreams, dawn

Saddle For A Throne

FC 11 O-13

314

Will Ogilvie

Stirrup Cup

When a pilgrim rode on a journey or a king rode forth to war or a knight rode mailed to the tourney in the chivalrous days of yore,

impatient, sorrow, tears, smiles

Saddle For A Throne

FC 11 O-13

315

Will Ogilvie

The Station Mile

I stand alone at the well-known place where wraiths of the Past defile, and wonder how long since last a race was run on the station mile. A new fence crosses the old warn track,

flag, game, trail horse, scarf

Saddle For A Throne

FC 11 O-13

316

Will Ogilvie

A Leaf From Macquarie

A gumleaf from Warren, all withered and brown, Fluttered out from a letter today, and my heart has gone back where Macquarie winds down by dusty red stock-route and sleepy grey town

overlander, friend, gift, mystical, tears