Woodland Woman Poem by Francis Duggan

Down by her woodland cottage the creek it trickles slow
And she lives close to Nature and there's little she doesn't know
About the birds and animals that in the woodland dwell
And even by their call or song each creature she can tell.

When darkness cloaks the woodland she can hear the boobook's call
And the brush tail possum hissing on the tree by garden wall
And the tawny frogmouth humming in the cool and freshening breeze
And the noisy cicadas shrilling on high up leaves of the trees.

And the male koala calling and his voice so coarse to hear
And grey kangaroo is coughing in the clearing somewhere near
And male wombats snarl and grizzle in a territorial fight
And she know each living creature that calls out in the night

And when dawn comes to the woodland kookaburras voice ring out
And the blackbirds and the magpies can be heard for miles about
And the butcherbird is piping and the great grey currawong
Is heralding the morning with his so familiar song.

And the yellow robin carol and the bell like voices ring
Of lovely crimson rosellas as they chatter and they sing
And the green bell miners belling like a tiny one tone bell
And the blue wrens and the fantails all these birds she know so well.

Down by her woodland cottage the creek it trickles slow
And she lives close to Nature and there's not much she doesn't know
About the birds and animals that in the woodland dwell
And even by their call or song each creature she can tell.