Poetry Dice Challenge #2: The Land I Call Home

This is my entry for @robyneggs Poetry Dice Challenge.

I'm not sure it's a poem, let's call it a verse.
I didn't consider myself a writer pre-steemit, I still don't harbour grandiose ideas about my ability either.
The challenges and competitions, with their structure, have helped me to explore creatively. Something I never imagined I would do.
I even bought some poetry books for the first time ever today, at a second hand market!

I've found a new interest that I am keen to pursue. I really enjoy poetry that address everyday issues using everyday language. If anyone has any reading recommendations I would love to hear from you.

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The Land I Call Home

In our paddock I sit, silently observing a humble dung beetle as she diligently tends to the discards of our flock, a humble task that would only be noticed should she and her kind cease to perform it.

The marino that are my life and my livelihood graze all around me, they pay me no mind as they seek out the remnants of the sparse diminishing pastures.

Our land is far from abundant, though the stream it still trickles, and for that I am thankful.

I secretly pray for the rain to fall again soon, a full dam would indeed bring solace, and return the smiles to so many faces.

There is nowhere I would rather be, though to the strangers who occasionally pass through, a contented life in such unforgiving country is indeed to them an alien existence.

As I sit here on this dry red earth I possess no desire for any other view, the eyes of another may fail to see its beauty, they see its thirst but in their haste to move on they do not see that it is also secretly nourishing.

This is an ancient land of magic and wonder, once caught in its spell its enchantment lives forever in your very soul.

To chronicle such a place is to attempt to describe a great spirit, words will always fall short of depicting the divine.

This is a land in which you can retreat from the theatrics of the modern world, discard its illusions, its melodrama and its pretence, and truly just be.

photography courtesy of @azurejasper. Taken in the Southern Highlands of NSW Australia during the drought in 2006, one of the driest years on record. This area is greatly relied upon for grazing and crops.

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Check out @robyneggs challenge. Each line correlated to the image on the dice, running from left to right.

https://steemit.com/poetry/@robyneggs/poetry-dice-challenge-2-official-contest-winner

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