Turning Pain into Poetry: The Story of Peter Allen

A note to young leaders.

Shit happens … to all of us.

Don’t let it bury you. If you mix it with enough sun, soil and soul – you can turn it into fertiliser.

Take Peter Allen – perhaps the most gifted singer-songwriter that Australia has ever produced.

Behind his flamboyant persona lay deep childhood trauma. Peter’s father, a troubled WWII veteran who later became a violent alcoholic, took his own life when Peter was just fourteen.

Remarkably, Peter sat an exam on the morning of his father’s funeral. He buried the pain and the shame and the loss – and just carried on.

And yet the trauma lingered.

Decades later, he channeled his private grief into one of the most evocative ballads of all time – the autobiographical masterpiece, “Tenterfield Saddler”.

The song lovingly memorialises his saddler grandfather and reflects on the mystery and agony of his father’s suicide – touching millions in the process.

From tragedy springs forth beauty; and from individual trauma, collective healing – if we but have the courage to carry on.

“Ride again Jackaroo – I think I see kangaroo up ahead.”