By GEORGIA WESTGARTH
KOOWEERUP’S own balladeer, Mal Pugh, has died after a battle with serious illness.
The well-known local poet was a much-loved contributor to the Gazette, where he waxed lyrical on subjects such as the growling grass frog and an apparent shortage of women folk in swamp towns.
In homage to Mal and in appreciation of his contribution, the Gazette has penned its own ‘Ode to Mal’.
Ode to Mal
Our poet has left us
But let’s not despair
His words will remain like
A breath of fresh air.
Mal Function he was known as
Poet laureate for this land
Laughter and wisdom
Were at his command
He growled when the grass frogs
Wouldn’t give way
To a bypass much needed
Down Pakenham way.
He rhymed and he rhythmed
He parried and thrust
A pen was his weapon
In humour did he trust.
At Australia Day, Anzac Day
Mal’s voice could be heard
Telling stories of our nation
That our history deserved.
The last stanza’s been written
But your words will live on
It’s been a pleasure, Mal Function
The Gazette says “so long”.
MAL Pugh makes his wife Margery laugh every day.
After living with cancer for more than three years, Mal saw the funny side in everything and has made sure his family and friends keep laughing long after he’s gone.
Putting pen to paper every day for the past 12 years, Mal Function the Poet Larrikin, was scribbling down his hysterically insightful poems about the nurses at Killara Hostel in Kooweerup even in his last days.
Mal made sure he kept the laughs coming at his recent funeral where he made a video appearance.
Planning his own funeral from start to finish Mal’s opening line was “I bet you weren’t expecting to see me here.”
Reading out a couple of his poems Mal finished the video with “Have a nice day, better than I will.”
A funny man until the end, Margery said, adding that, “That’s him- he’s one in a million, there will never be another one of him, he’s what you call unique.”
A carpenter turned poet of the larrikin kind, Mal was a guest on 3AW’s gardening program with Jane Edmanson and Darren James.
“He read his poems on radio for at least 10 years,” Margery said.
A craftsmen and wordsmith Mal had a place like no other.
He had his ‘Bull Shed’- “Because he writes a lot of bull, as he used to say,” Margery said.
Carving walking sticks out of tree branches and furniture out of cyprus, Mal’s quarter acre block in Kooweerup is “All buildings and no grass,” Margery said.
With a donation box at the gate, Mal would open his backyard up to guests which consisted of a small township with a court house, barber shop, chapel and bull shed all built by Mal.
“There are stables as well with a carved horse head- all the money raised through the open backyard went to the Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal and he did that for nine years,” Margery said.
Married for 32 years, Margery calls Mal the “love of her life”.
“He was always funny, to the extent that I had to ask him if he was serious or joking.”
Mal will be remembered for his love of life, uncanny knack for putting humour into anything and, of course, his much-loved poems.
