Bruny Island
Angelica Banks was lucky enough to visit the Bruny Island Primary School last week. We experimented with some of the English language’s more unusual and largely unknown words. The task was not to know the meaning – but simply feel, taste and smell the word from the experience of rolling it about in your head and mouth. This resulted in some fabulous ideas and poems from the students … and this beautiful bit of verse from the 3/4 – 6 teacher, Lee Macefield, embodying the perspective of the villainous (but poetic) Carsten Mothwood – and using the evocative word farsang. Thank you Lee, Jo, Anne and all the brilliant, imaginative and inventive students at Bruny Island who made it such a memorable visit.
Across my sleep I travelled
As the Farsang gaily tracked.
The wind upon the beeswaxed deck
Smelt of persimmon and flax.
The gentle rush of salt and fleck,
A foam filled dream of cloud.
Until I bumped into a distant shore
And yelled awake out loud.