BOB PACEY
Queensland, Australia
About Bob Pacey
Old Bill
Oh, your mane may be in tatters
And your coat a shaggy grey.
You can see a hint of stagger in your gait.
Yes, we've seen the years fly by Bill
Throughout the good times and the bad
But you're more than just a stock horse, you're my mate.
All those years of droving stock Bill.
Oh how the time has flown.
I'd swear you were a colt just yesterday.
I remember when I picked you
From that wild-eyed brumby mob
By gees you were a good'en in your day.
Wheeling cattle round the stock camp
While the rain came tumbling down
Chasing wild back country scrubbers with old Jack.
There was not a horse could beat you
When a mob had took to flight
I remember how we brought that baldy back.
At cutting steers around the yards Bill
There was ne'er better horse than you.
You were not the one to root or buck or stamp.
Holding cleanskins down for branding, sorting pikers from the mob
Or riding nightwatch around a dark and rainy camp.
And when I broke my leg at " Shanghai "
Trying to catch that brumby roan
A pitch black night without a moon or lamp.
I never would have made it without you at my side.
You carried me for miles back to our camp.
Now the years have taken toll Bill.
The long paddock beckons still
But you've done your watch and now's your time to rest.
Let your final years pass slowly
Where the sweetest grasses grow.
In my memory Bill you'll always be the best.
So graze down by the river, rest quietly in the shade.
Wander slowly on the flats down by the bend.
Our droving days are over
But I'll always be there with you Bill.
You're more than just a stockhorse
You're my friend.
© 2011, Bob Pacey
This poem may not be reprinted or reposted without the author's written permission.
Bob told us: I was reading some stories about the early settlers and how Australian stockmen were sometimes closer to their horses then their wives and found that most poems related to stockmen who were dying. This was another point of view without the tragic ending that most stories had.
About Bob Pacey:
provided 2011In full flow he can make a grown man cry at 10 paces.
And such is his versatility that those tears might be of laughter or despair.
Bob Pacey, the Central Queensland’s region’s best-known bush poet, has a verse stored in his memory for just about every occasion.
That’s why he can be found reciting in pubs, libraries, showgrounds, museums and markets throughout Central Queensland and beyond.
Bob is a true blue local whose great, great grandfather Robert Pacey settled the area as a stockman with the pioneering family, The Archer Brothers.
So it may come as a bit of surprise to learn that such a natural and prolific poet didn’t really pick up a pen until he was in his late 40s after much encouragement from his late auntie Pat Little and didn’t perform in public until 2000.
“I can’t imagine life without poetry now,” he says in a short break from his current job as “general roustabout” at Coolwaters Holiday Village at Causeway Lake.
“I have poems at home that have provided solace and helped me through difficult times. “And I love performing. I never let the truth get in the way of a good story and it’s great when people laugh until they cry. What a great feeling that is.”
After his first nervous outing at the Archer Park Museum in Rockhampton in 2000, he quickly developed a reputation for comedy. In 2011, at age 60 and with a repertoire of around 80 poems committed to memory, he admits he’s still learning and still writing, although some poems come more easily than others.
Bob spent many years travelling throughout Queensland in his previous position as a supervisor with Denhams Supermarket and it was these travels that provided a lot of the inspiration for his poems, many of which appear in his recently released book Bullsh*t Bulldust And Bob.
Over the years Bob has had many poems published in both the Morning Bulletin and other local newspapers as well as on radio 4ro and the ABC. Bob was the inaugural winner of the "Poets In The Pub" in 2006 as well as representing Central Queensland in the Q150 Shed Tour.
Where his poetry will take him in the future is anyone’s guess but his current position at Coolwaters Holiday Village in the Capricorn Coast provides him with a ready made audience and outlet for his poetry and many an enjoyable night has been had by tourists over a few drinks while Bob plies his trade. It would be fair to say that there is still a lot of poetry left in Bob Pacey and he will be giving it his best shot well into the future.
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