Why I Live where I Live (for Macca) by David J Delaney offers a warm greeting to Macca before opening into a celebration of life around Cairns.
Rainforest tracks, golden shores, tropical colour and a cast of birds, butterflies and native creatures bring David’s corner of Far North Queensland to life.
Why I Live where I Live (for Macca)
By David J Delaney
Well G’day Ian my dear friend I’ve listened to you now for years.
I’d like to mention if I could, you’ve brought me laughter and some tears.
I wrote this little poem mate, it’s something I would like to give
and share with all your listeners, why I love living where I live.
I love it here in our far north and Cairns is where I now reside
where poets always find their muse and life is mostly lived outside.
Our Winters can’t be classed as cold though sometimes drops to eight degrees
and Mexicans just can’t believe what we call ‘cold’ or ‘nippy breeze’.
Most mornings here in paradise are mesmerizing pinkish blues
then in the evening at day’s end we finish with light purple hues.
Now Macca, here in my backyard where rainforest and beaches meet
you’ll stroll the winding forest tracks within a tropical retreat.
Where Blackbean and the Silky Oak, Red Cedar and the Kauri pine,
Cathedral fig and Quandong trees have grown as long as ‘Old man time’.
There’s golden Penda and tall Gums with ancient Elkhorn by the score,
and scaly tree ferns everywhere while crystal creeks wind through the floor.
Now if you watch with eagle eye you’ll spot some Bennett’s Kangaroos,
or hear a white lipped tree frog croak and screeching sulphur Cockatoos.
While higher in the canopy a Lesser Sooty Owl now darts
and swoops towards a white tail rat, which senses danger and departs.
And all the while there’s butterflies like Birdwing and the Swallowtail,
Ulysses and Helena Browns (now don’t they all just seem so frail)
Boyd’s dragon and the Bandicoot, the Swiftlet and the Lorikeet
all these creatures share our forest, and every single one’s unique.
I haven’t mentioned golden shores which stretch as far as one can see
or, swimming on our untouched reef and named the life beneath the sea.
There’s many more that I could name and so much more that I could share
but why not view this for yourself our beauty is beyond compare.
I’d like to keep this poem short but it’s a little hard to do
because there’s so much beauty here I want to share with all of you.
And while I sit surrounded in my world that’s still so primitive,
I hope my poem gave a glimpse – “Why I love living where I live”.
David J Delaney ©
Keeping The Verse Alive
Why I Live where I Live (for Macca) 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.
