Like his father, he is. 
A limb from the same eucalypt, though he might deny it. 
One of six. His dad and granddad 
farming pioneers in the remote east. 
Honest Christian folk, labouring determination. 
Cleared a goodly part of the property 
and ran cows. 
Not without tragedy, neither. Two separate accidents 
killed one brother and left his mum 
and another sibling scarred. 
Later, cancer carried off the eldest. 

His dad was boss. Directed the kids to help out 
during long farming hours. 
It niggled the freedom in their souls till 
they listened to the wind’s whispers. 
One by one he and his sibs took off 
and made lives of their own. 
Not that they didn’t love their Pop. 
But you gotta have     space     around 
your labour. The farm was sold. 
If it broke his dad’s heart, the old man 
never showed it. 

By then he’d shot through to 
Queensland. 
Worked the mines of his misery. 
Worked the land     listened to the call 
of the Red-tailed Black Cockatoo. 
Met a beautiful woman.     Married her 
and became father to her children. 
Had two kids of their own. 
Says she taught him everything he knows. 

let nature sew 
our fragments of hope 

Quandamooka woman 

listening 
to the landscape’s 
wisdom 

—Second Place Winner in MacQ’s Cheribun Challenge #3

Publisher’s Note:

My heartfelt thanks to Hazel Hall for including two “Q” words in her cheribun: Queensland and Qaundamooka. The second is new to me, and I learned via Wikipedia that the word refers to a group of Aboriginal Australians from the Moreton Bay region of Queensland. They are the traditional custodians of Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island), Mulgumpin (Moreton Island), and the surrounding waterways. Prominent members of this group are actively preserving and sharing their culture and communities.

For example: Lorraine Hatton (born 1966), an Indigenous Quandamooka woman and elder recognized by the Australian Army for her 20+ years of service; see “Indigenous Elder of Army: Aunty Lorraine”:
https://www.army.gov.au/about-us/leadership/indigenous-elder-army

And the first Aboriginal Australian to publish a book of poetry (We Are Going: Jacaranda Press, Brisbane, 1964) was Oodgeroo Noonuccal (1920-1993), formerly Kath Walker, a Quandamooka activist, poet, writer, and educator. See “Aunty Oodgeroo Noonuccal” at the cultural resource portal Deadly Story:
https://deadlystory.com/page/culture/articles/anzac-day-2018/oodgeroo-noonuccal

Hazel Hall

is a widely published Canberra poet, international judge of Japanese short forms, and musicologist who enjoys collaborating with other artists. She founded and coordinated the ekphrastic poetry group School of Music Poets from 2012 to 2017, and directed the Poetry at Manning Clark House series of readings from 2018 to 2022. Her writing ranges from short Japanese forms to free verse, hybrids, and prose poetry.

Hazel’s most recent published collections include:

• a chapbook of collected sonnets and hybrids, A Hint of Rosemary (Interactive Publications, 2024);
  
  
• two chapbooks in the Picaro Poets series published by Ginninderra Press: Breathe In, Breathe Out (2023), and Severed Web (2020), the latter with late artist Deborah Faeryglen;
  
  
• a radio play in 15 linked sonnets, Please Add Your Signature and Date it Here: A Verse Drama (Litoria Press, 2021);
  
  
• a full-length collection of tanka by Hazel Hall in collaboration with six other poets and illustrated by the late Parkinson’s artist Robert Tingey, Moonlight over the Siding (Interactive Press, 2018);
  
  
• a chapbook with haiku by Hazel Hall and tai chi by Angelina Egan, Step By Step (Ginninderra Press, Picaro Poets series, 2018); and
  
  
• Eggshell Sky with calligraphers Angela Hillier, Narelle Jones, and artists with Parkinson’s (2017).
  
  

Hazel holds a PhD from Monash University.

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ Ghosts of Gershwin, cheribun story by Hazel Hall in MacQueen’s Quinterly (Issue 25, September 2024), long-listed Finalist in MacQ’s second Cheribun Challenge

⚡ The Miner’s Wife, sonka (sonnet + tanka) by Hazel Hall in Issue 21 of MacQ (January 2024)

⚡ A Question of Faith, Hazel’s tanka prose poem which also includes a pair of senryu and a cherita variation; MacQ publisher Clare MacQueen dubbed the piece “a heavenly hybrid” and selected it as one of eight Finalists in “The Question of Questions” Ekphrastic Writing Challenge (Issue 15, September 2022).

⚡ Culture Shock, Hazel’s cheribun in Issue 12 of MacQueen’s Quinterly (March 2022); Third Place Winner of MacQ’s first Cheribun Challenge

⚡ See MacQ’s Index of Contributors for half-a-dozen additional hybrid poems by Hazel Hall.