A visual representation of "Survival" by Gillian Bickley
CHENG Wincy
Sha Tin Government Secondary School
In my design, I used a traditional street in Hong Kong as the background, showing the familiar items of this city. Although Hong Kong is a crowded city full of noise and air pollution, it is a vibrant place where different industries flourish. I drew a wide variety of shops, grocery stores and restaurants selling signature food. Such prosperity can be attributed to the ‘shelter’ provided by the tree which is the main character of the poem. It has dropped its anchor in this place and got over challenges. The tree represents faith, truth, silence and hope in the city. I appreciate its perseverance and am grateful that it is still here with us regardless of the constant changes caused by urban development.
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.