Cobram’s Paul Bownas is a man with an interesting tale.
The UK-born Cobram resident moved to Australia when he was 13 years old before serving in the Royal Australian Navy, deploying to Vietnam, and serving three years on submarines.
“We (Australia) didn’t have any submarines at the time. The navy sent me to the UK,” Mr Bownas said.
“So I did submarine training at HMS Dolphin with the Royal Navy and did my sea training on a T-class submarine left over from the Second World War.”
However, the time spent in the military took its toll, and Mr Bownas eventually left the military due to mental health reasons.
“I ended up having a breakdown, and I left the navy,” Mr Bownas said.
“I ended up in the next probably five years I did about 10 different jobs.”
Mr Bownas spent a few years working at the now-defunct Commercial Bank of Australia and then spent 20 years working for local government.
However, his inner demons caught up with him in the 1990s.
“In 1992, I had a complete breakdown. Ended up at Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital with PTSD and depression,” Mr Bownas said.
It was a slow and steady struggle from hospital to recovery.
However, Mr Bownas had two massive pillars of support.
The first was his wife, Jackie Bownas, whom he credits for being his rock and support through all the hard years.
The second was discovering an outlet in poetry through U3A.
U3A is an organisation that provides seniors and mature-aged people with activities and courses in various subjects.
Mr Bownas signed up for a creative writing course, which included poetry.
“I wrote a poem because they used to have homework,” he said.
Mr Bownas’s first poem was about rivers and he found that once he started, the words and the poem just flowed.
He realised he had a knack for writing poetry and decided to take it up as a form of leisure and recovery.
His skills grew, and he won numerous competitions in Australia and the UK, including a Herald Sun bush poetry competition.
Mr Bownas said he was old-fashioned and liked his poetry to rhyme, and that he got his inspiration from his life experiences.
“Memories, a lot of memories about the UK, different places I’ve been to in Australia, things like that,” he said.
Mr Bownas recently wrote a poem called All Hallows Eve in recognition of Halloween, which is celebrated on Tuesday, October 31.
Mr Bownas has recovered from his mental health problems, though he would be the first to say he hasn’t totally healed.
However, Mr Bownas said those suffering from mental health issues should seek help.
“Talk to someone. That’s how to get it out of your system because the longer you block it up, the worse it gets,” he said.
All Hallows Eve
The yowl of cats, the hoot of the owl, the howling of the wind,
The frantic dance of fallen leaves as round and round they spin.
The eeriness of naked trees where they stand tall and thin.
The crackling scream of witches as they make their raucous din.
Though moonlit, darker shadows fall upon the field and road;
Deep, though somehow sinister, the croak of frog and toad.
Dark, the threatening thunder clouds that glower across the sky,
Cold, menacing, the pale moonlight from cloud to cloud does fly.
Turnip lanterns orange glow across the frosty ground now show;
While stealthy creatures wearing hoods now secret flit among the woods.
Behind their windows, wrapped up warm, the good folks stay for fear of harm,
With curtains closed against the night, they cower there in fear and fright.
This is the night when ogres prowl, when deeds are done both dark and foul;
When witches cast their evil spells in places where the wee folk dwell.
When cauldrons toil and boil and bubble, when all the world is full of trouble.
Don’t walk across the village green — tonight my friend is Halloween.