The Anzac On The Wall Comments

How can one get in touch with Jim brown as we wish to speak to him about using his poem

Written by school teacher Jim Brown

This was written y Jim Brown and there are 2 versions. from a google search this was an award winning poem: and written after 1990. there is also a video. 9 minutes Author’s Note: It started when I was a TV journalist preparing to travel to Gallipoli for the 75th anniversary of the landing [1990]. I went to Canberra to gather photographic support for a TV documentary, and while in the archives of the Canberra War Memorial Museum a lovely old man put a box of letters before me. The letters were untraceable, and had no addresses. They were written to and from the war front and I was entranced by them. I was not allowed to take them away, but I made notes. This was a long time before I became a bush poet, The final cog in the wheel was about 5 years ago when I went into an antique shop and saw a photograph of a light horseman on the wall. For some reason I still can’t explain I had to have it, and started writing a poem based on the question who was he? This was the first or shorter version of the poem. I later revisited my notes of the letters and incorporated them into the longer poem. What struck me in the letters was the untold suffering of Australians waiting at home, and how many mothers and fathers knew intuitively that they had lost a loved one on the other side of the world. Those close to the land seemed to know from signs of nature, and these are in the poem.