Modewarre: Home Ground

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Patricia Sykes

Modewarre is the Indigenous Wathaurong word for musk duck. Through this icon of land and water, Patricia Sykes explores various histories – her own, her forebears, the wider histories of identity and place – in poems that are as concentrated as pearls. Three roads meeting in the one bird: modewarre (the Indigenous), biziura lobata (the colonial), musk duck (the common). It sweeps its subjects along in a flow of striking images and strong feelings, these buoyed by an intelligent sense of poetic structure and modulated by a sometimes ironic eye.

2004 | ISBN 9781876756505 | Paperback | 200 x 130 mm | 120 pp

Patricia Sykes

Modewarre is the Indigenous Wathaurong word for musk duck. Through this icon of land and water, Patricia Sykes explores various histories – her own, her forebears, the wider histories of identity and place – in poems that are as concentrated as pearls. Three roads meeting in the one bird: modewarre (the Indigenous), biziura lobata (the colonial), musk duck (the common). It sweeps its subjects along in a flow of striking images and strong feelings, these buoyed by an intelligent sense of poetic structure and modulated by a sometimes ironic eye.

2004 | ISBN 9781876756505 | Paperback | 200 x 130 mm | 120 pp

Awards

Shortlisted Judith Wright Award 2005

Reviews

'Sykes is a poet who is intelligent and often vivid –“…like a grounded thing / she is learning mud / as delicious and terminal” – and Modewarre is an astute and rewarding collection.

—Stephen Lawrence, Wet Ink

‘It sweeps its subjects along in a flow of striking images and strong feelings, these buoyed by an intelligent sense of poetic structure and modulated by a sometimes ironic eye.’

—Jennifer Strauss

‘… this is a brilliant book of poetry.  I was thrilled and moved by it.  I was engaged by its intellectualism.  It is so valuable to come across books like this, books that shake your complacency, books that compel you to pick up a pen and write something of your own.’ 

—Jennifer Harrison