2022 School Magazine

GWEN HARWOOD SOCIETY T he Gwen Harwood Society is a poetry and creative-writing club where members have the opportunity to explore and experiment with writing styles not covered in curriculum-based learning. The group, guided by English and Literature teacher, Mr Saunders, is a tightknit community of dedicated students who meet every Friday to discuss and develop their personal poetry, as well as work towards various projects elected by students and directed by their coordinator. From freeform verses, pining love poems, and mythological epics with modern re-imaginations, the society's wide exploration of genres this year has enabled its members to build their creative confidence and improve the quality of their poetry. The supportive and collaborative atmosphere of the society provides a ground for members to share in their poetry passions and foster lasting friendships which cross grade boundaries. Emma Readdy (11L) and Anna McAuley (11R) O ne of the projects the Gwen Harwood Society tackled this year was to draw out the spirit and intent of ancient stories and to then reforge those deep feelings into free verse poetry. Liv Evans’ (10O) poem, Tiamat: Mother of the Depths , embraces the Metaphysical school’s focus on the inventive use of ideas and constructs to match the projects objectives, while using the sensation of the spoken word over written text to convey the themes of her story—a mysterious sense of an unbound creation and unsettling infinity present in the ancient Akkadian tales and our vision of the night sky and deep oceans. Liv’s own addition to the Metaphysical is the construction of the text as reflective of its night sky and deep-sea stanzas to magnify meaning.

Mr Andrew Saunders ENGLISH TEACHER

BRISBANE GIRLS GRAMMAR SCHOOL 2022 | 093

TIAMAT: MOTHER OF THE DEPTHS Liv Evans (10O)

Oh, to love a skeleton star that burns in days burned, a mad, ancient destruction. we look at the night & it lies we look up to see the corpse of the sky up above, the glistening ones -light-shield, world skin- fade softly & bare our heart to the void

the dark is deep, & it is everything above, below and forever it knows me, this stranger it beckons from above & gravity be damned, I know – mother of monsters & all the night before you, queen of the depths & the sea made from Her corpse, the heavens in turn are turned into

it wants me to jump

a beast of the deep oh please, Tiamat please

it is dark i am small it is g r o w i n g