A visual representation of "Survival" by Gillian Bickley
PEI Cherry Chanley
Good Hope School
The poem describes a tree surviving in a polluted city. Pollution caused by human activities shown in the background has worsened the environment, which makes the tree not an ideal home for its ‘friends’ – butterflies and birds. Concrete buildings and poisonous chemical gases are drawn beneath the tree as well. Yet, the unpleasant conditions and its friends’ departure have not weakened the tree’s loyalty to this place. It stays sturdy and offers protection to its home. The roots look like a sunflower, depicting the speaker’s strong belief in a bright future under the shelter of the tree.
Despite the environmental pollution nowadays, the speaker still believes in the one last hope of nature, which is represented by the tree. I believe that humans should be more considerate and put more efforts in revitalising the urbanised city filled with pollution. We, humans, should stand together in saving our home, reducing the impacts we bring to the ecosystem.
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.