Technical issues on Youtube & latest haiku

Sorry folks if you tried to access "Ode to a Miner" on Youtube. My technical consultant ( me) ought to be fired. That's harsh - retraining, some kind of course?
It's now up and available, same address:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMxjRnejNXI

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Ben Bullen State Forest walk with Yuri

photos - thanks to Peter Cai

I walked with Yuri Bolotin and a group of people recently, near the Gardens of Stone  National Park, out past Lithgow. This is stunning and unique country.


Swordgrass butterflies
orange-banded tenants
of a coalmine lease

Unfortunately a company called Coalpac wants to  dig it all up for the coal that lies underneath. They already have two small portions of mining lease, far apart, and everything that lies between them is to be open-cut mined.

A treecreeper
in the overburden
sings of trees

Eagles' nests - delicate grasses - spiders - all kinds of fantastic rock formations - aboriginal shelters - pagodas - wallabies - all of this is lumped together in the company's term 'overburden'.

Peter Cai

On the radio yesterday I heard a man talking about 'legacy' mines. This is what is left over after we've made use of the earth. Australia has 50,000 of them, he said. The word 'legacy' reminds me of what is left after a noble struggle,  as designated by the War Widows' organisation Legacy. They sell poppies for Remembrance Day. Or something of use to the next generation, left by those who've passed on. But in this case we have 50,000 ugly useless holes in the ground.