Year 11 Literature

Deep listening to Voices of Country

In Year 11 Literature the new study design includes a ‘Voices of Country’ unit, which engages with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander storytellers and considers the impacts of colonisation. As part of this unit one class entered poems into ‘Poem Forest’, a nature poetry competition held by Red Room Poetry. The following are a selection of those entered, read all of their poems here.

Roots

By Teia F

This land we call ours

Has a richer history

Far deeper than us

Trees older than time

Roots beneath; tangled, entwined

Not our possession.

eucalyptus

By Sian S

new leaves stretch

their fingers to the sky and the birds

nibble the blossoms in their sincere way of life.

the old growth underneath is twisted and gnarled

and smooth. it saw the sun once but rests in the shade

urging the new leaves to dream. sunlight dapples

lower and lower. bark is smooth and

beetles crawl over

the trunk.

they are

somber

in their

community

on

this

old

tree. 

Thieves of Land

By Sidney W

The birds we stole from the sky, were they ours to steal?

The birds we brought over, did we have that right?

Like the invaders, we kill and camp,

on land that is not ours, and skies that are losing their song.

In wood and stone we've taken, from the spirits and camps of elders, we live carefree lives on soil that resents our presence.

In Birrarung Marr, the eels choke,

on plastic flecks, and mountains of silt.

The cormorants spread their wings to dry,

and find the oil marring their feathers.

The kookaburas laugh,

at our ignorance.

Our unthinking, unfeeling disrespect.

And we sit.

And live, and steal, and kill, and be killed,

on, by, and from the land that isn't ours.

Branches

By Polixeni P

Fluttering leaves are falling down,

leaving their branches behind.

For bugs and birds to pick apart,

without their sticks and twine.

When leaves leave life and home and place,

critters will come to visit.

But, the structure holding their leaves whole,

will not be there to see it.