A visual representation of "Survival" by Gillian Bickley
OR Wing Yan
Yan Chai Hospital Wong Wha San Secondary School
The poem ‘Survival’ describes a tree which lives in a place where the air is foul and the noise is unnatural. Reading this poem, I admire the courage and perseverance the tree shows. It even flourishes under harsh conditions where buildings are knocked down, the air is filled with noxious gases produced by factories and emitted by cars. The gas is illustrated in the form of skulls to represent the deadliness and harmfulness of the air. Inside the tree, there is a heart showing the habitat where the tree should have lived in – a forest full of animals. However, even though the friends of the tree have left and the birds and butterflies are gone, the tree has an indomitable will to live in the city by itself. It remains solid, cool and green despite human mistreatment. I think we should all learn from the tree to be brave and uncompromising even when we are stuck in undesirable conditions. We should pluck up the courage and persevere even when we face challenges and obstacles. The faith in a brighter future would guide us through the darkest time.
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.