Poem by Ogden Nash.

I didn’t go to church today,

I trust the Lord to understand.

The surf was swirling blue and white,

The children swirling on the sand.

He knows, He knows how brief my stay,

How brief this spell of summer weather,

He knows when I am said and done

We’ll have a plenty of time together.

Ogden Nash published this verse in 1968, three years before his death, in “There’s Always Another Windmill”.

Old Jetty, Brighton Beach. S.A. (c) Marie Trudinger
Brighton Beach.

When it’s Springtime in Australia

Shy gold begins to peep through the sombre green –

the wattle’s wedding dress –

and Spring is near.

Then suddenly it seems,

one golden morning,

the Bush awakes, a living thing.

Flowers bloom, birds sing,

and all the world puts on it’s gayest dress

to greet the laughing Spring.

C. J. Dennis

Wattle Tree. (c Marie Trudinger)
(c Marie Trudinger)