Year 8 English

The students in Year 8 have been studying Ali Cobby Eckermann’s verse novel Ruby Moonlight this term in English and have shown outstanding creative ability in producing their own original poems in response.

Fire, Ashes and Bush are written and read together as a three-part story. 

Fire 

The truth they had seen, 

How blind had they been. 

The bird above saw pain, 

Which will eventually make it claim. 

Fire burns all 

Leaving our mistakes. 

Ashes 

Days may feel long 

Hearts still burn 

And the scars will never fade 

Although it was not me 

To land upon your shores 

Our hand stained of blood 

Of our ancestors’ faults. 

And as the ashes settle 

I stand for my past 

I say to you 

I’m sorry. 

Bush 

An ash wasteland. 

Pain circles in the air, 

And the mistakes tower like trees. 

Unseen but written in the pages of time. 

Eucalypts and Acacia trees will brush the sky, 

Hold koalas in their sturdy arms. 

A mob of kangaroos jumps in the wildflowers. 

Emus strut within the bush, 

as the echidna scavenges for dinner. 

Birds fly in the damp sweet air. 

Cockatoos squawk and kookaburras laugh, 

Their calls filled with prosperity. 

The recent rain dampens the bush with hope. 

Green shoots peek their head up, 

Sprouting, growing, healing the land. 

The bush anew. 

Freya A, 8B

Chanie Stock

Head of English 7–10