By Taylah Eastwell
A Cockatoo woman has turned her dark days into social media fame after a poem she wrote about power outages went viral.
Elise Turnedge has always enjoyed poetry, so when she found herself sitting at home with only a candle light to see following the storm, she put pen to paper to create a poem depicting the circumstances that have become all too relatable for Yarra Ranges residents over the past fortnight.
Titled ‘The Sound of Generators’, Elise’s poem speaks of trees being ripped out of the ground, powerlines hanging down upon the ground, cooking on the barbecue and the all-too-familiar sound of a generator powering away.
“I have always written poetry from when I was in primary school, and my husband is a local CFA volunteer so he was out at a job, I think someone had lit their chimney on fire, and I was here by myself with just my candles and no power, I couldn’t do anything so I thought I’d play my guitar and the first line just popped into my head,” Elise said.
“I’d just boiled the pot on the barbecue so I could have a cup of coffee because I was so cold,” she said.
As a hospitality business owner, the storm has had a crippling effect on Elise and her family, who decided to let their generator run at the shop to save food rather than power their home.
“We lost a week’s income and all our fresh food. We had just gotten the announcement on Wednesday that Covid-19 restrictions were lifting so had started cooking to open Friday, so basically all the fresh ingredients we’d got in we lost. There’s only so many bits of cold lasagne you can eat,” she laughed.
“It’s been tough. We have the best community support we could ask for though, without our community I don’t think we would still be here after Covid-19,” she said.
After her poem went viral, Elise got a message from 3AW, who invited her on air and played her poem.
“I was like, ‘this is crazy’. I’m not an out there person at all, so I was thinking holy sh**, what have I done, and then yesterday I opened the mail and someone had anonymously donated some cash for us as a business after hearing my story. It’s just an awesome place to live, even with no power,” she said.
Here are the lyrics:
Hello darkness my old friend
Seems the powers gone out again
Because a storm ripped through our town
Ripped the trees right out of the ground
And the powerlines they’re all just hanging down
Upon the ground
And there’s the sound of generators
And my house is dark and cold
A generator would be gold
Cooking dinner on the bar-be-cue
When the temperature is minus two
Is not something that I really like to do
Probably catch the flu
And there’s the sound of generators
In the blackened light I saw
10,000 candles maybe more
Flickering candles through the window panes
Oh I wish they would restore the mains
But the nights awake with a soothing, humming sound
From all around
It’s the sound of generators
And the whole community
They came out to move some trees
The S.E.S and the C.F.A
Came from near and from far away
And I met some neighbours that I’d never met before
Down at the hall
And there’s the sound of generators
Finally the powers been restored
All the kids no longer bored
Footy’s back on the big TV
Mum’s in the kitchen and she’s cooking tea
And life’s gone back to how it ought to be
And FINALLY
There is no sound of generators.
