Through Old Eyes – Poems by Uncle Wes Marne

 Through Old Eyes – Poems by Uncle Wes Marne

Reviewed By  Grasshopper2       August 5, 2022

 

Author  Wes Marne

Distributor:      New South Books
ISBN:                 9780645428209
Publisher:         BLACKBOOKS® (Tranby Aboriginal Cooperative Ltd.)
Release Date:   June 2022  

Website:    https://www.newsouthbooks.com.au 

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 Through Old Eyes is a small book of poems that would make the most wonderful teaching resource. It could be used by teachers, parents, and students. Uncle Wes has written, with great simplicity and heartfelt honesty. He has also used humour, beauty and love of life to inspire the reader. The poems are grouped under headings; CAMPFIRE DREAMING, MY PLACE, INDIGENOUS ONES, THE ROAD AND PAYMENT TO COME.

Some of these poems are as satisfying to read as sitting by a campfire looking at the star-studded sky. Others express feeling that is so heavily charged it could not be written in prose. With a simplicity of expression, Uncle Wes has layered suggestions that again are too complex for prose. These beautifully wrought short poems convey to the reader a sense of time, place and being that touches a familiarity between all of us.

An early poem in the “Campfire set”, shows a deep sense of contentment as a man stretches out on his blanket. Warmed by the fire, with the billy boiled and a tasty dinner consumed, he looks at the stars and he understands,

“Each light up there was a campfire

Lit by a warrior of old

The brighter the light, the better the man

Who has travelled on before.”

There are other poems which are not as comfortable to read, but nothing that does not hold a hope for the future.  A yearning for the old ways and stories which tell the culture helps us all to realise the importance and wonder that Uncle Wes has realised.

Uncle Wes celebrated the 100th anniversary of his birth….April 25th 1922

Non Fiction, Poetry