Sunday 17 June 2012

My Fabulous First Inland City

After receiving some shitty, shitty news, and then the wonderful generosity that has come from it, I started to reflect on how proud I am of my home town and of its people. It truly warms my heart to think of the good that has come from such a horrible situation.
Now by no means do I rate myself as a poet, but these words just seemed to spew out onto the page. Oh dear, here come the tears. L Anyway, I hope it makes you appreciate your home town, whether it is the same as mine, or not.
My Fabulous First Inland City
I come from a town that is bagged by some, the weather, the people, no water, so on,
They can’t wait to leave; they call it a hole, to move somewhere nice – that is their goal.
Well get on your bike, move away from this town, we don’t need you constantly bringing us down,
‘Cause this town is great and it stays in your heart, away for a week, or 10 years apart.
It’s there with its parks and its streets and its mall, that seedy old nightclub –where we’ve all had a ball,
But it is the people that make it the best, heart so full of pride it could burst in my chest.
They’ll be there when you laugh, they’ll be there when you cry, no matter how long, you can always rely,
There’s a bond that you have when you’re from a small town, it’s nothing to fear, there’s no need to frown.
You’ve known kids since kindy, or high school, from sport, sneaking out to a party and then getting caught,
Their siblings, their parents and even their nans, their pops and their cousins it just never ends.
When tragedy strikes or if you’re ever in trouble, you’re mates from back home will be there on the double,
You might go to uni, you might move away, but a small little piece of you’ll always stay.
In times of sadness, when you’re falling apart, remember this, it’ll help warm your heart,
I’m so proud of my fabulous first inland city, but what first got me thinking is still such a pity.
BessiMac x
PS If you are feeling very generous and haven’t donated already, every dollar counts and is very appreciated.

5 comments:

  1. Beautiful Brooke, brought a tear to my eye. Lovely to hear so much pride xxx

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  2. Hi Bessi,

    I'm a family friend of the Pugh's and I showed Elaine tonight the beautiful words that you had written. She feels the same way about Goulburn and would like to use your words in the Post next week in a story they will be doing on Matt. If you could contact me in regards to this that would be great. My email is melaniewinkler81@gmail.com
    Thanks

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  3. I don't know the people that inspired this poem but I grew up in Goulburn. I know people who do as you say in the poem and call it a hole and bag into completely. I now live in Sydney and even if I never go back to Goulburn again in my life it will still be the most special place in the entire world for me. I first read this poem a few years ago in the email edition of the Goulburn Post and I immediately had the same reaction as Goulburn's mayor, and he cried.

    I receive weekly gmail alerts about different subjects and one of them is Goulburn. Going through that today I thought of this poem and I came back to this link, which I have bookmarked. It produced the same reaction as the first time and I was, and still am, in tears.

    I've told people that I don't care what they say about Goulburn, good or bad. If they want to say something bad about Goulburn that's fine with me. They can tell me they've said something bad about Goulburn JUST DON'T LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU'VE SAID.

    Thank you so much for this poem. Yes it's not the best piece of writing or poetry ever but it comes from the heart and from a place that I LOVE........My Fabulous First Inland City.

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