Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Award

Each year the Community Relations Commission Award is awarded as part of the National Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Prize for a poem best highlighting the value of cultural diversity within the Australian community.

The Dorothea Mackellar Memorial Society Community Relations Commission Poetry Award for 2011 has been won by Chantelle Tran, from Prairiewood High School, Wetherill Park.

Chantelle won the prize with her entry Sorrow.

Sorrow
To adapt to the splashes of the waves,
to adapt to the months, the hours, the days.
To know your way across the seas,
to not living where you please.
 
To know when but to not know where,
just knowing that you wouldn’t stay there.
The crowd rushes in numbers, one to ten,
getting ready to travel once again.
 
Moving every few months, moving once in a while,
making different friends, seeing them smile.
It breaks your heart to know you have to go,
it feels your heart with such a sad sorrow.
 
Moving homes, moving from place to place,
sometimes having to build camp, a new base.
From Winter to Summer, to Autumn to Spring,
a new month, a new year, a new beginning.
 
Sometimes I want to stay but can’t,
this is the life of a migrant.

 

Other category winners from this years' awards can be viewed on the awards website at www.dorothea.com.au.