The Winning Poems 2005 - Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Awards
The Winning Poems 2005 - Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Awards
The Winning Poems 2005 - Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Awards
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heartening<br />
some cold and haughty<br />
rejecting<br />
spurning<br />
some indifferent<br />
couldn’t care less<br />
I have brought with me<br />
Many gifts<br />
Richness of my roots<br />
Brightness of my culture<br />
Burning desire to excel<br />
Commitment to give back<br />
I have brought with me<br />
<strong>The</strong> greatest gift of all<br />
HOPE<br />
I am a migrant<br />
Foreign<br />
Different<br />
Unique<br />
I am Australian<br />
Contrast<br />
Compare<br />
Conundrum<br />
Melbourne<br />
Home<br />
Judges’ comments:<br />
Friyana has made every word work to provide us with a rich and sensory tapestry of<br />
what it is like to come from another culture to multicultural Melbourne. As judges we<br />
particularly enjoyed such lines as ‘raucous bollywood music from ancient<br />
radios/slums and shanties as welcome as weeds’. From such sharp words come<br />
instant word pictures. A true hallmark of great writing.<br />
In the first section of Friyana’s poem we are in the slums of Bombay, we smell the<br />
‘greasy fried pakoras, spicy samoas’ our eyes take in ‘the naked babies with swollen<br />
bellies’, our ears hear ‘car horns blaring/ road rage explosions/ street vendors<br />
hawking their wares.’ <strong>The</strong>n suddenly we are ‘high rises blossoming/society<br />
penthouse parties/shining swarovski/Chanel and Versace’. We are invited to<br />
‘contrast, compare, conundrum/Bombay.’<br />
But Friyana’s poem begins another evolution: the cultural shock of a new country, a<br />
new city, Melbourne. This next image is a real poetic gem ’brightest colour denim
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