My Home Australia by David J Delaney is a wide-ranging celebration of the landscapes, wildlife and people that make Australia home.
From drought-stricken farms and empty dams to rain-filled creeks, native birds and wildflowers returning in colour, the poem finds resilience and renewal across a diverse country.
My Home Australia
By David J Delaney
This is Australia my home,
where many cultures work or roam,
and mostly we are in good cheer
when country pubs serve ice cold beer.
Where droughts seem like they’ll never end
while in the sky some hawks descend,
then pick the bones of calf or lamb,
they died where once was a full dam.
Where farmers kick the dust and rock
how long can they stay on their block?
and pray one day the rain will come
then hardships might be overcome.
Where with the rains the landscapes change,
from dry salt pans to mountain range,
the waterways they now disperse,
within a country so diverse
Where fingers stretching through this land
are filling all the beds of sand,
and soak the ground right to its core,
the channels come alive once more
Where gathered by the creeks and streams
comes forth the noise of howls and screams,
from pink galahs and cockatoo,
some dingoes, flocks of emus too.
Where flowers wake from their long sleep
soon through the cracks they’ll slowly creep
and show their reds and orange hues
with yellows, whites and varied blues.
A sea of colour all around,
A festive scene is all abound,
then rest beneath a starry dome,
This is Australia my home.
David J Delaney ©
Keeping The Verse Alive
My Home Australia is shared with permission from David J Delaney through Keeping The Verse Alive, Country Campfire’s bush poetry preservation project.
By preserving poems like this, we’re helping ensure the stories, humour and characters of country Australia continue to be enjoyed for generations to come.
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.
