A visual representation of "Survival" by Gillian Bickley
CHAN Ching Hei Judith
St. Mary’s Canossian College
Despite being in a hideous environment, the tree in the picture stays strong and healthy, with vivid green leaves and sturdy roots.
On the contrary, the black and white shades in the background are used to illustrate the loss of liveliness in the city due to rapid urban development, pollution and disappearance of green space.
In the rectangular boxes that represent the past, the tree was once the habitat for animals.
Everything was colourful and the tree was accompanied by other trees in a tranquil forest.
However, city development has gradually destroyed nature, turning the blue sky grey.
The degraded environment forced the animals to leave, but the tree still stands firm in its place.
While rubbish is piling up, graffiti is covering the trunk, toxic gases are filling the air, the tree remains strong and vigorous.
Trees are immortal regardless of the city’s endless cycle of destruction and redevelopment.
They never leave us behind despite what we did.
The present may be dark and blurry but trees remind us of the beauty in life.
In the artwork, the growing new sprouts signify new lives and the possibility of a better future.
We should be full of hope, just like the speaker of the poem.
Survival
Thank you trees for being there, for staying
when many of the friends you knew─
birds and butterflies ─ have gone;
for flourishing, even; growing old
where concrete buildings
are constantly knocked down.
How brave you are to survive
in a place where the air is foul
and the noise unnatural;
you who should normally expect
to stabilise your roots
in humid humming forests,
alive with the smells of
animal and vegetable life
(not the smells of mineral death, as here).
It is good to look down a street
and, amazed, to see you there,
solid and green and cool, uncompromised
by the advertising posters on your boles;
a promise
that, since there was a past,
there may quite possibly be a future too.
1982
Gillian Bickley
“Survival” was first published in For the Record and other Poems of Hong Kong by Gillian Bickley, p.25. Copyrights© 2003 by Proverse Hong Kong. Reprinted by permission of Proverse Hong Kong. Please approach Proverse Hong Kong by email (proverse@netvigator.com) for permission to use this poem or others in the collection.