I fell in love with Australia 50 years ago and have enjoyed each trip there. You have captured the sights and sounds of the land with authenticity. Thank you for giving me another trip back without leaving my chair.

Helen, your poem accurately captures the images across the vastness of Australia...records the poetic rhythm of the sweet sound and smell of rain...that's so rare...the outback sooo red and the drought sooo dry...sooo unfathomable pain for us the urban dwellers...yet...an awesome sight of sooo much to love..."her beauty and her terror - the wide brown land"...etched upon national character...resilience 'n laconic humour in face of hardship...in tune with rhyme of this ancient land...evolving flora 'n fauna with the ability to adapt...spiritual land...indeed...a shelter for many coming from life's storms...love that country with all my heart!

A storm without rain is indeed a frustrating thing for desert life to endure. Nicely captured in your poem.

Ron

Interesting, matter-of-fact resignation here, Helen. But also I sense a 'been there-done that' feeling of making do and enduring. This story may have been scratched into stone for 50,000 years, just newly translated.

Without water, how does anything, including people survive...Apparently they do, but it must be a raw & hot existence, not my kind of place to even visit...-e-