Diary of Denis Patrick (alias Rupert Bert Patrick), 1941-1945 - Part 9

SATURDAY, MAY 3 1941
"Sweet seductive arts" Peggy Overall -
bless her big palpitating heart.
She brought sunshine out of the rain
& together we gambled, gamboled
Danced & dined & so today on this
the last of my leave I really hate
leaving her & Sydney to go back
to the [[?]] of [[?]] &
Borneo. However I must go. and the
pleasant memories of a new found
friend will I hope give me
something to think about.
The jungle can be a pit of 

despair when one loses spirit- Boredom
is the greatest killer of spirit & I
only hope that I will find plenty
to so in the forthcoming months
Flying is still a pleasure but
slowly it dawns on me that
I really can get along without it
and after all it isn't such a 
healthy life - One loses ones values
of life in war time but in peace
eternal safety, although perhaps
dull, is still a big consideration
Just what the post war holds
for me I cannot tell - perhaps the
plan will be worse than the
war - To live, one must have
economic security & in a world
whose politics are as corrupt

SUNDAY, MAY 4 1941
as this one, security can only be
attained by the swift - The race is
to the swift - To swoop on an
opportunity to grab & to be shrewd
is the only way to make money.
We who have spent the best & most
able years of our life in the service
have a lot of ground to make up

The war - workers & the civilians beacause
of fantastic wage bills have been
able to save large sums of money
and, after the war it is they
who will be able to outbid us in
business, consequently I will have
no compunction about beating them
to their market.
I leave Camden at 3 pm today in
an R.A.F. Douglas transport
 

MONDAY, MAY 5
Nostalgia 28 June 45
Deep in the starlit silence of the night
When moon beams kiss the gently rustling palms
Comes to the imagery of my sight
A vision of your pretty, pleasing charms
I love to mentally caress your lips your hair
Or seek some little trick of memories ways
To take me back to that grand week so fair
Those laughter enlivened, happy, rainy days
And then I wonder, could that something
unforeseen
Upset that gift - our love, or cleave
Into those lonely yearning months 
between
Our parting and the next brief week
of leave

Ah 'no, my fears are soon dismissed
For destiny has willed that it should be
A friendship born in rain and kissed
A loving thing, a fond eternity-
Firefly 28 June 45.
Pretty little fire-fly, dancing in the moon-light
Like a midget minion, flashing over there.
Wonder what your thinking? wonder why
your twinkling?
Could it be a message you flash into
the air
I envy you my little man, your glitter
& your sheen
I am sitting in the drabest tent; my light
of kerosene
Id like to be a firefly & wink at
this an that
Alas I'm just an airman, short
& fair & fat.

5
Comes of a quiet spirit, or that
trees
Have wisdome in their windless
silences.
Yet there are things invested in
my wood
With constancy, and peace, and
latitude
That in my troubled season I can
cry
Upon the wide composure of the sky,
And envy fields and wish that I
might be
As little daunted as a star or 
tree.
Goodnight darling -
Denis.

Newspaper clipping - see original

Dear Soldier
I hope you
are well.
I hope you
have a merry
Xmas. and
are not wounded.
or sick.
W. Stone
Aged 7.

5. comes of a quiet spirit, or that
trees
Have wisdome in their windless
silences.
Yet there are things invested in
my wood
With constancy, and peace, and
latitude
That in my troubled season I can
cry
Upon the wide composure of the sky,
And envy fields and wish that I 

might be
A little daunted as a star or
tree.
Goodnight darling -
Denis.

Newspaper clipping - see original

Dear Soldier
I hope you
are well.
I hope you
have a merry

Xmas, and
are not wounded.
or sick.
W. Stone
Aged 7.

Pressed flower

 Newspaper clipping 

When is a Man Educated?
When he can look upon the universe,
now lucid and lovely, now dark and terrible,
with a sense of his own littleness in
the great scheme of things, and yet have
faith and courage.
When he knows how to make friends and
keep them, and above all, when he can
keep friends with himself.
When he can be happy alone, and high-minded
amid the drudgeries of life.
When he can look into a wayside puddle
and see something besides mud, and into
the face of the most forlorn mortal and
see something beyond sin.
When he knows how to live, how to love,
how to hope, how to pray—glad to live and
not afraid to die, in his hands a sword
for evil and in his heart a bit of song. -
Joseph Fort Newton, "Motive", February,
1945.
For Denis -

Newspaper clipping 

When is a Man Educated?
When he can look upon the universe,
now lucid and lovely, now dark and terrible,
with a sense of his own littleness in
the great scheme of things, and yet have
faith and courage.
When he knows how to make friends and
keep them, and above all, when he can
keep friends with himself.
When he can be happy alone, and high-minded
amid the drudgeries of life.
When he can look into a wayside puddle
and see something besides mud, and into
the face of the most forlorn mortal and
see something beyond sin.
When he knows how to live, how to love,
how to hope, how to pray—glad to live and
not afraid to die, in his hands a sword
for evil and in his heart a bit of song. -
Joseph Fort Newton, "Motive", February,
1945.
For Denis -
 

Newspaper clipping (top cut off)

hymn arrested his attention. He stopped
to listen. Then came the familiar strain,
"E'en though it be a cross that raiseth
me, Still all my song shall be..." Why,
the organ was playing "Nearer, My God, to
Thee." That music brought back a flood
of memories. He was a young man, but
it was a long time since he had heard
that hymn in Sunday school. Somehow
church had lost its interest for him for
years past. "I might as well go down and
see what it's all about. Just another
church meeting, I suppose."
At the bottom of the stairs he hesitated,
but two pleasant-faced usherettes robed
in black and white smiled at him reassuringly 

and offered him a programme.
So he went inside and sat down on a
seat near the side. His eyes lighted upon
a glowing radiator. "I'm glad I came.
I'll be nice and warm for an hour or
so. Have a sleep maybe. These preachers

RECEIVED TELEGRAM
Pyrmont 18    11 20am
L & C Patrick
[[?]]  18 Wharf Pyrmont.
Mother Rupert Daisy Iris saw you lifeboat safe landing love.
Mother 11 22 am