I Love The Coastal Country Poem by Francis Duggan

I love the open spaces the cliffs above the sea
And you can have your noisy town the coastal lands for me
Far from smoky suburbia the coastal air is clean
Though the paddocks by the ocean more often brown than green.

I love the coastal country the sea breeze in my face
The brown and dusty outback is not my sort of place
The Bush poets write of Bush people the shearer and his wife
They have a hard existence I don't envy them their lot in life.

I was born and raised far from the southern coast lands far north by northern hills
where the dippers sing their scratchy songs in the upland streams and rills
Far from the sunlit Country of the butcherbird and roo
Of the wombat and the silver gull and the yellow tailed black cockatoo.

I love the coastal country I could sit and watch forever more
At the mighty surf waves rolling from the cliffs above the shore
And watch the black backed pacific gulls high above saltwater soar
And the sea is never deafening though it has a mighty roar.

I love the coastal country where the ocean breezes blow
Where the river as it nears saltwater is deep and flowing slow
I was born and raised by northern hills far inland from the sea
But the southern coastal country now feels more like home to me.