In the Shadow of Ghosts by David J Delaney is a tribute to the Australian poets and writers whose words helped shape the bush poetry tradition.
From Henry Lawson and C.J. Dennis to Banjo Paterson, Will Ogilvie and Barcroft Boake, David reflects on the voices that inspired him and the hope that his own poems may one day be remembered alongside them.
In the Shadow of Ghosts
By David J Delaney
To all and sundry I hereby attest
when writing stories, I will pen my best,
to literary heights I will aspire
and write like poets, those that I admire.
To stroll with Lawson under silver moon
and sit with Dennis in the early noon,
ride with Morant along the Condamine,
inspired by Parkes, my rhyme I will refine.
Then walk with Kendall, hear the bell birds song,
stand with Ogilvie, view the rushing throng,
watch Evans write his women of the west,
read Boake, great poet and one of our best.
There’s Esson’s tribute to the shearer’s wife,
the convicts who sang their rum song of life,
then Song of Australia was Carleton’s view,
I hear Paterson, and that Geebung crew.
Verse caught the time, the man rode Snowys side,
viewed Sydney town when ships moved with the tide,
rode Cobb and Co. along a dusty track,
travelled the bush, where some never came back.
All master poets, experts in this craft,
read so many, I smiled, I cried, I laughed,
published in many a books well read pages,
their words are still resounding through the ages.
I’ll keep on writing well into the night,
knowing one day, I’ll pen the metre right,
the flow of my rhythm will be like a song,
the beat will sound its perfect soft and strong.
With help from writers, present or the past,
my writings’ I know will forever last,
when all’s left are my poems and my rhyme,
I would love them remembered for all time.
Keeping The Verse Alive
In the Shadow of Ghosts is shared with permission from David J Delaney through Keeping The Verse Alive, Country Campfire’s bush poetry preservation project.
The poem honours the writers who came before while preserving another chapter of David’s own contribution to Australian bush poetry.
David J Delaney
Bush Poet • Writer • Storyteller
David J Delaney is an Australian bush poet and writer whose poems draw on a lifetime of work, travel, family, road memories, outback places and the people he has known along the way. His poems are preserved through Country Campfire as part of the Keeping The Verse Alive project.
Poems, recitals, photographs, stories and original works remain the property of their original creator and are shared by Country Campfire with permission.
