THE OLD CHURCH
| The old church is still standing Though the place it stood is bare They removed it many years ago But to me it still stands there I can see it very clearly Through the mist of vanished years I can hear our bush choir singing I can also see the tears Just a small, old timber building That boasted just one room Here we celebrated weddings And mourned a loss with gloom It was here we learned of Christian things And sang our hymns of praise And it also served as school house Back in my childhood days Just one teacher with a class of twelve With ages six to ten It was there I fell in love with books I was just aged seven then I rode an old farm horse to school And there I'd let him graze And after school I'd ride him home They sure were golden days Our teacher had her hands full And though she seemed quite old She never lost her patience She had a heart of gold Our heating in the winter Was a wood fire far too small We could see the embers glowing But it didn't warm at all And in the summer season When it was sweltering outside We'd try to cool the school room By opening windows wide Our chairs were used on Sundays For the humble praying folk But our chairs were much too little And many of them broke So it seemed that on most Mondays A troubled day we shared For some of us sat on the floor Until our chairs could be repaired For 'sport' she took us swimming In a gently flowing creek We looked forward to our 'sport's day' We had one every week And sometimes we played cricket With a badly damaged bat While the girls did 'callisthenics' On a tattered thread-bare mat Some mothers dressed their girls up In 'creations' that were prized They were made from home-dyed hessian And they all seemed over-sized And the boys did not have uniforms Like the 'rich kids' in the towns We wore whatever fitted And they were mainly hand-me-downs We were humble farmer's children And their income was quite small But in things that really matter I think we had it all We had many simple pleasures That we've lost along the way And I wouldn't swap my childhood For the one they have today The young today have pressures Of a kind we never had There's so much that they're exposed to And I find it very sad And too many expectations Can put them on the skids I'm so grateful that in my day We were allowed to just be kids We didn't have peer pressure To wear the latest 'gear' Or indulge in crazy 'party drugs' Or soak ourselves in beer I know we must move with the times Or soon we're out of touch And yet I can't help feeling Sometimes we lose so much It was in that sleepy little church I sat with mum and dad And there I found a trust in God The deepest trust I've had As the preacher gave his sermon I could feel God everywhere His presence overwhelmed me It seemed to fill the air But life chips off some innocence With every passing day I'm now a damn agnostic I lost some faith along the way But as I gaze upon the church That isn't standing there I see again my childhood days A childhood free of care And again I'm sitting in that church Between my mum and dad And I fleetingly recapture All the innocence I had Some would find it puzzling Why I gaze at empty land But if they could see what I can see I'm sure they'd understand I'll take this warmth within me When I leave this hallowed ground And my heart will feel contentment With the memories that I've found Time will age our bodies But I've found that there is truth By refreshing childhood memories Our mind retains it's youth I'm a sentimental dreamer Who refuses to grow old And in this life I'll always find More warmth than there is cold K.D. Abbott © 2008 |
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