CONDAMINE BELLS

    Jack Sorensen   

    first published Sydney Bulletin November 1939


    By a forge near a hut on the Condamine River,
    A blacksmith laboured at his ancient trade;
    With his hammer swinging and his anvil ringing
    He fashioned bells from a crosscut blade.


    And while he toiled by the Condamine River
    He sang a song for a job well done,
    And the song and the clamour of his busy hammer
    Merged and mingled in a tempered tone.


    And his bells rang clear from the Condamine River
    To the Gulf, to the Leeuwin, over soil and sand;
    Desert eagles winging heard his stock bells ringing
    As a first voice singing in a songless land.


    The smith is lost to the Condamine River,
    Gone is the humpy where he used to dwell,
    But the song and the clamour of his busy hammer
    Ring on through the land in the Condamine bell.

   

Love This!! A beautiful setting of Jack's poem by Chloe & Jason Roweth :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3L2ldYYeCQ


R-J