mmg.com.au

A poem by Tatura’s Robyn Black has been included in a worldwide anthology chosen from 3000 international entries.
Ms Black’s poem Boat Talk, inspired by media treatment of the Christmas Island refugee boat tragedy, is included in a long-list e-Anthology of 150 poems selected from thousands of entries to the $50 000 Montreal International Poetry Prize.
 Ms Black said she entered the poem last year and was thrilled to included in the prize’s long-list of poems chosen by an international panel.
‘‘I was absolutely blown away,’’ she said after she was told of her selection in an email.
She said Boat Talk was triggered by last year’s floods around Shepparton.
‘‘I was driving along The Boulevard when the river was up, and it looked very peaceful,’’ she said.
‘‘The gum trees were mirrored in the water — and because of the news about the boat people I thought of the difference between the lives of people here and in Fly Fish Cove where the boat broke up.
‘‘I also don’t always believe what the media is reporting.’’
Ms Black said she began writing ‘‘as soon as I could read’’.
As a child growing up in Victoria’s Western District in the late 1960s, she staged plays based on TV dramas.
‘‘We wrote scripts based on shows like Division4 — and then acted them out,’’ she said.
Although she excelled in English at school, Ms Black said career opportunities were limited.
‘‘Girls weren’t encouraged to explore different careers then — it was either teaching or nursing,’’ she said.
Today, Ms Black is a mother and grandmother and works full-time as a human resources officer at Bega Cheese in Strathmerton.
She said the daily drive to and from her home in Tatura was good for her writing.
‘‘I unwind on the drive home and get my head in a different space,’’ she said.
A long-time member of Goulburn Valley Writers’ Group, Ms Black said she found poetry suited her writing style.
‘‘They’re smaller versions of short stories. More condensed — I find them easier to write,’’ Ms Black said.
She said inspiration often came unexpectedly.
‘‘One poem started with a typo — instead of ‘night sky’ I wrote ‘night sly’,’’ she said.
‘‘I got a good poem about foxes from that.
‘‘I also keep a log of ideas. And I love overheard conversations — like the Oslo Davies cartoons in The Sunday Age.’’
The deadline for the 2011 Montreal International Poetry Prize was on July 11.
A panel of international editors then read more than 3000 poems from 59 countries.
The prize winner was announced on December 15.
Fifty finalists were published in a Global Poetry Anthology book in December last year.
For more on the Montreal International Poetry Prize, including the 2011 winning poem, visit the website www.montrealprize.com

Boat Talk
by Robyn Black

strange syntax
hard to hold
in the mouth
rolls hesitant
over refuged tongue,
spills out into sanctuary of
the Goulburn riverflats
languidly throwing
mirror-image of cicada’d gum
a heartbeat away
Christmas Island
holds court in
Flying Fish Cove
sweeps protest swiftly
under righteous surf -
stories stilled
one breath from asylum
and we pause in our day
to witness the truths so
carefully framed
in the 6 o’clock news