In My Own Words – Page 66 – The Poems of David Garlick

Perhaps we love the sea

because it reflects all our human moods.

The sea can be kind or cruel, warm or chilling.

Uplifting or depressing, sultry or frigid,

aloof or embracing, sad or happy.

Afraid or courageous, smooth or rough,

fearsome or gentle, beautiful or ugly.

All this while being fleetingly mysterious.

A never ending ever changing enigma!

David Garlick, Maui, May, 2006

As mountains go, I am not large,

I do not tower in majesty

and seldom does a cloak of snow

adorn my rocky weathered back.

But I am loved by many men,

not just the few who can afford

the luxury of living on

a hill that overlooks the sea.

No, most of those who visit me

come there from homes I see afar

and holding hands in awe they watch

the orange sunset, paint the sky.

And when on special holidays

the sky is lit with fireworks

they throng to sit upon my top

to ‘ooh’ and ‘ah’ the sparkling show.

Or as the moon glides into sight,

to gladden lovers sitting close.

I listen to their whispered love

and wish them well in future years.

Please do not sell me to a few

when there are those who use me well.

But wisely keep me as a park

And gain the love of many men

David Garlick, Victoria, 1987

Summer now, when the sun shines

and the sky’s, a dome of blue.

Where the forests greet the ocean.

Our fair city welcomes you.

You are welcome as the Eagle,

soaring to your greatest heights.

You are welcome as the Orcas,

talisman, of strength and might.

Welcome Belize, welcome Ghana.

Welcome Tonga, Malta, too.

Welcome people of our Commonwealth.

We are proud of all of you.

This is not, only, of Gold medals.

This is not a media fete.

This is taking part with passion.

This your chance, to communicate.

Soon summers, turn to autumn.

Gold and bronze, instead of green.

Silver gray, the distant mountains,

of our ever changing scene.

Part of you will always stay here.

Though you came from lands afar,

to this special place of meeting.

Commonwealth, Victoria.

David Garlick, Victoria, August, 1994

For the Commonwealth Games Athletes.

I’ve read and loved the Robert Service poems.

Both his deep and lighter works have much to say

and it struck me that the heroes of his verses

can still be seen around us, to this day.

Where will you find these men so rash and ready?

Can I really show you where they are, you say?

Just go to any job site in your area

and you’ll see them working for their hourly pay.

But are there any men like his old heroes?

Who, if he were alive, once more today,

would inspire him to write another saga,

that would bring the tears of laughter to an eye?

It came to me while seated in a mess hall,

in a campsite, far from the nearest town.

That the men who sat around me eating supper

Where the same that Service wrote of in his poems.

There were big men, slow and gentle in their habits

and the smaller kind, who make a lot of noise.

There were those who worked hard to earn a dollar

and others who behaved like little boys.

I too have worked in many far-flung places,

From Arabian Desert to the frozen north

and while I am no Robert Service Poet,

These stories of real men, I here set forth.

David Garlick, Victoria, June, 1986