Modewarre: Home Ground
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