Poems to help lasting Legacy

A NEW book by local poet and writer Noel Hayes is set to benefit Ballarat Legacy.

Launched last Friday and titled I Have a Dream, the work takes some of the greatest speeches of all time and re-imagines them in six verse prose.

“It’s about 28 of the world’s greatest speeches, from Martin Luther King – thus the name, to the Kennedy’s and Paul Keating’s speech at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Gallipoli,” Hayes said.

“Then it’s mixed with true war stories, like Wireless in the Broom at Changi Prison, and mixed with many other poems.

“It’s a hard job. Each speech was over 30 pages, so I convert that back to six verses. You might read four of five paragraphs to get two lines, and then you mould them together.”

I Have a Dream is the 14th such work by Hayes, and each one has seen the proceeds from sales donated back to a charity.

He’s launched his works in every state of Australia and supported causes like Shannon’s Bridge at Creswick, motor neurone disease research, and the Oberon RSL in New South Wales.

“All the money in the world is not worth a cent,” Hayes said.

“The world’s been good to me, and I have my health. The satisfaction I get out of this is bloody fantastic.

“It doesn’t matter what charity it is, and there’s thousands of them, I just want people to support them.”

Hayes’ creative choice to write in six verse prose, often taking quite complex ideas and converting them into short, sharp stanzas is a simple one, he said it makes the works accessible.

“I launched a book in Western Australia, at Cervantes on the coast, and the chairman of the shire said, ‘it’s much easier to learn history in six verses’,” Hayes said.

“Not the detail, but certainly easier learn about that part of history in six verses than reading 200 pages.”

Local footy hero Gerard FitzGerald, who helped launch I Have a Dream, agreed and said Hayes’ works made readers want to go further and learn more.

“I loved it and I loved the way it’s written,” he said. “The format in which Noel’s written, it then leads you on.

“I actually went and Googled Abraham Lincoln’s famous words, and others. It makes you move on with your thinking as you’re reading, because it’s so readable and topical.”

Mr FitzGerald said his long involvement with Legacy, and friendship with Hayes, made supporting the book launch an easy thing to do.

“My father was a Legatee,” he said. “We weren’t beneficiaries of Legacy, but we understood Legacy from a very early age.

“One of the things that makes Legacy so important, and such a significant part of our fabric, is authenticity, it’s humble beginnings to the mighty organisation it is now.

“We should all be very proud of Legacy, but understand it still needs support, which is what Noel is doing.”

The idea for Hayes to write a book of verse in support of Ballarat Legacy came about a few years ago, and while the launch had to be held off in 2019 due to COVID, branch secretary Peta Gillespie said the money raised from sales would stay local.

“We have 35 children we look after now,” she said.

“People don’t realise that because of the fourth-generation vets – Afghanistan, Iraq, East Timor – so all these modern vets, who have mental health issues etcetera, we support those families. That’s why we have so many more children.

“Ten years ago we had two kids.”

I Have a Dream is on sale for $20 at Ballarat’s Legacy House, 5 Raglan Street South, Ballarat Central.

If you can’t make it into the office call 5331 3242 or email [email protected] for arrangements to obtain a copy.