Your self
How is it possible
How do you define it
What if you are
alien
suppressed
isolated
In a culture
foreign to you
Then
Breakthrough
You are your self
You do belong
You can contribute
to where you are
as you are
Listen up
Speak up
Stand up
You are
Your self
Colours
Outside the bedroom window
Red-orange and yellow-leaved trees
Bright colours
soon to fade
falling to the ground
Trees decked in colours
Behaving like flowers
Bees unimpressed
Black and white magpies flying in and out
A lone cyclist struggles up the hill
Looking for something to hang my sadness on Pain in the arm physical not mental More real or not Sitting in a plane Long flight Scrunched up Dislocation One continent to another One hemisphere to another Out of joint Pain surges Why did you leave Go Where to Where from You’ll never know If nothing else It has to be the trees
Note: Eugene Purdy shot and killed my grandfather E.S. Hutchison in Tulsa Oklahoma on 13 January 1925. Purdy went to trial but was found “not guilty due to temporary insanity”.
Hello Pamela,
I just read your book and want to share information about Charles Eugene Purdy with you. Eugene Purdy was my grandmother’s older brother. I’m sorry your grandfather and family suffered the loss inflicted upon them by Eugene. But more importantly, I want you to know that my grandmother told me that the crime ruined his life and he was very remorseful about it. Her exact words were “it ruined his life”. I will share with you what I know. Gene raised the two boys that he and Helen had together. We were told that Helen left the boys with Gene. She was gone. As you may know Charlie Purdy – Gene’s son with Helen, got hit by a car and died in Tulsa. My mom told me that Helen came back for the funeral and they never heard from her again. The other son was Robert Purdy. Gene and son Robert left Oklahoma and moved to Los Angeles for a short time. Then they moved up to San Fransisco. There Gene would live out the rest of his days- quietly working as an accountant. He remarried and died in 1963. He became a Christian Scientist- the coincidence that he was surprised me when I read your book. His son Robert joined the Navy for WW2. The family pretty much lost touch. The whole murder was painful for the family. So I guess it was natural for the relations to slip away. Gene was buried in the veteran’s cemetery in Northern California.
Per my Mom-Gene’s niece, he was a quiet and soft spoken person. You may know he was an accountant and worked for an oil company in Tulsa. His father, also Charles Purdy, had been the town banker in Billings, Missouri and he was a traveling judge for the Springfield area. (Another coincidence with your family) He died before his son Eugene committed the crime. Gene came from a good and happy family. So the whole situation was a big shock. My grandmother told me that she had to testify at the trial- she was 20 years old. It was a ordeal. She also told me that Gene’s employer really helped him and pulled for him in the trail. Apparently this employer was very well to do and very well connected. We all know that if this happened today Gene would have gone to prison. I have photos of Gene and one of Helen. I will share them if you like. Again, please know that Eugene Purdy was sorry for what he did. My grandmother was there and she knew him well as her brother. She is the person that told me of his lifetime regret.
Sincerely,
Laura, a relative of Eugene Purdy
Was it today
or yesterday
Driving along
Happy for no reason
Everything clean and clear
No evil anywhere
No fear
On my way
So what
if my son
is not home
or does not answer
the phone
or the door
Happiness continues
Did you see that magpie
in the olive grove?
Clear vision
as if a pane
of frosted glass
in place
not to reveal
but to disguise
has been removed
Dispelled
by an unseen hand
for an unknown reason
Calm recognition
of a different
state of mind
Is this wisdom?
Pleasant though
not quite joyful
Like the day
Cloudy with spotted sun
Not yet raining
although it might
Calmly happy
for no reason
No reason at all
No reason at all
Driving the road
Unpaved
Potholed
Stopping at a space
Previously known
Stepping onto the track
Recovery of memories
Erased
Starting over
Drizzling day
Break through sun failure
Doubling down
On rain gear
No set goal
No set time
No measurements
Burned out log
Forest remnants
Damped down
No smells
No bird calls
Unseen frogs croaking
Limited colours
Walking on
Looking up
Ghost stumps
Burned black
New growth
Shooting from trunks
Shooting from soil
Defying destruction
Bushy grey green
Redefining a once forest
Walking on
Drizzled on
On and on
Up and up
Looking down
Tiny purple flowers
Thumbnail size
Could be orchids
Thoughts leap to partner
Limited by Parkinson’s
Returned to car
Unable to complete
The track
Reach the ridge
Joy of wild orchids
Thinking of him
Alone not lonely
Ridge arrival
Unforeseen
All directions
Hills upon hills
Callum Brae Nature Reserve (Narrabundah Lane, Symonston, in Canberra’s Inner South) is a very special place.
Callum Brae protects Yellow Box and Blakely Red Gum trees which are on the Extremely Endangered list as well as grassy woodland. Many species of birds, some of which are rarely sighted such as the swift parrot and the gang gang cockatoo have been seen in Callum Brae. Callum Brae is a well known location for birdwatching. We visit and enjoy Callum Brae Nature Reserve regularly.
Callum Brae Nature Reserve is under severe threat by a proposed large crematorium and cemetery infrastructure on the boundary of Callum Brae Nature Reserve. This commercial development proposal is inappropriate, unnecessary and damaging to the environment.
Callum Brae Nature Reserve will be overwhelmed by the proposed huge Crematorium development on its border.
Make a submission TODAY against this development application amendment.
Deadline for comments 31 May 2022
Make a submission website: http://bitly.ws/qwoy
Scroll down toJERRABOMBERRA – SYMONSTON
Or go to www.planning.act.gov.au
Choose Development Applications open for Public Comment.
Search SYMONSTON Development Application: 202138789
Address: 99 MUGGA LANE
Thank you.
Dedicated to the trees of Callum Brae Nature Reserve, Canberra, Australia which are under threat from a proposed crematorium complex
For me
It’s the trees
The gum trees
They welcomed me
To this land
When no one else did
Where are you from?
What’s that accent?
Go back to where you came from
But where is that
where did I come from
So many places and spaces
And peoples
And struggles
And protests
And learning
And sharing
Go back to where you came from
Embrace them all
And I do
When I stop
And stare at a gum tree
I know you
You know me
I embrace you
I look up to you
I admire you
Your colours your shapes
Each tree unique
Yet grounded in the same soil
Gum trees are elsewhere
Where I’ve lived
California
Seen as a threat
Live through the dry
Can catch fire
Gum trees in California
all look the same
Is it because they were torn
Out of their original home
in Kenya
Gum trees all look the same
But in Australia
Each one different
Orange
Pink
White
Grey
Brown
Black
Shaggy bark
Smooth bark
Scribbly bark
When in doubt
Where you are
Do you belong
Look at a gum tree
Admire their shape
Their tenacity
Their survival through fire
Walk up to the tree
Look up to the tree
Embrace the tree
Then you will know that
You are alive
You belong
You are the tree
One day I will be a tree
Or perhaps I always was
I try to write
To paint
To sketch
A gum tree
Or a forest
I have not yet captured
Their essence
On paper
Sydney Nolan
Captured the essence
Of gum tree forests
Yet he had to have
Ned Kelly
Hiding within
Behind the trees
What is the relationship
Of Ned Kelly to gum trees?
What about the wombat hole
And the dead soldier who fell in
What does this say about the settlers
The colonialists relationship to the land?
Was it Ned Kelly who opposed them?
Was it the land itself
that could not be
Completely conquered?
I see the gum trees daily
I think of them daily
I embrace them daily
This is what keeps me going
When denied by society
The trees are still there
or how to be undepressed
Drive the joyful way
Not the quickest
Notice the dead rabbit
in the road
Picked at by
a large black raven
Quietly move towards it
in an electric vehicle
Honk the bird
out of the way
Notice
Twelve or more
pink crested galahs on a wire
usually seen on the ground
pecking away
while pushing Eliana’s pram
she’s watching
as am I
as we quietly creep closer
whoosh they fly away
Notice
Old friends
the eucalypts
arching
swaying
more creative
in their shapes
and colours
than my paintings
Drive the joyful way
Notice
Australia Australian Broadcasting Corporation book review Book titles camping Canberra Charles Eugene Purdy Christian Science Dean Koontz E. S. Hutchison Eastern Oklahoma State Mental Hospital family and fiction father fiction Gary Snyder Helen Purdy Kansas Kansas City Kenneth Patchen Kenya Kosciusko National Park Life Expectancy Love Pirate MidWest Missouri Nairobi New South Wales nobody’s a long time novel novels as history Oakland Oklahoma Pinch River poetry public library reconciliation title Tracking the Human trees Tulsa Tulsa Daily World USA Vinita W. Lon Hutchison Whales
Australia Australian Broadcasting Corporation book review Book titles camping Canberra Charles Eugene Purdy Christian Science Dean Koontz E. S. Hutchison Eastern Oklahoma State Mental Hospital family and fiction father fiction Gary Snyder Helen Purdy Kansas Kansas City Kenneth Patchen Kenya Kosciusko National Park Life Expectancy Love Pirate MidWest Missouri Nairobi New South Wales nobody’s a long time novel novels as history Oakland Oklahoma Pinch River poetry public library reconciliation title Tracking the Human trees Tulsa Tulsa Daily World USA Vinita W. Lon Hutchison Whales
Australia Australian Broadcasting Corporation book review Book titles camping Canberra Charles Eugene Purdy Christian Science Dean Koontz E. S. Hutchison Eastern Oklahoma State Mental Hospital family and fiction father fiction Gary Snyder Helen Purdy Kansas Kansas City Kenneth Patchen Kenya Kosciusko National Park Life Expectancy Love Pirate MidWest Missouri Nairobi New South Wales nobody’s a long time novel novels as history Oakland Oklahoma Pinch River poetry public library reconciliation title Tracking the Human trees Tulsa Tulsa Daily World USA Vinita W. Lon Hutchison Whales
Tracking the Human: nobody's a long time 