Published in Overland Issue The Oodgeroo Noonuccal Poetry Prize · Uncategorized Highly recommended: A poem about community John Graham The braille of our nation’s Soul Like someone putting their hand up Like someone digging deep The braille of our nation’s Soul You feel it across all communities And all communities feel it Feeling our way, young and old We’re all feeling our way, For a feeling called home The nature of our tears, is to find a home in each other’s eyes, find some reason, some way, between the tides The nature of our blood is to find, every other heart that’s not our own, and still recognise home Image: ‘Braille’ / flickr John Graham John Graham is of Aboriginal and European blood, namely Kombumerri, Waka Waka, Gamilaroi and Irish, Scottish, English blood. The affirmation ‘Stories make us and Stories keep us’ helps John navigate the interesting times we all live in. Everyone is free to touch the ground and start from there. More by John Graham › Overland is a not-for-profit magazine with a proud history of supporting writers, and publishing ideas and voices often excluded from other places. If you like this piece, or support Overland’s work in general, please subscribe or donate. Related articles & Essays 22 November 202422 November 2024 · Fiction A map of underneath Madeleine Rebbechi They had been tangled together like kelp from the age of fourteen: sunburned, electric Meg and her sidekick Ruth the dreamer, up to all manner of sinister things. So said their parents; so their teachers reported when the two girls were found down at the estuary during a school excursion, whispering to something scaly wriggling in the reeds. 21 November 202421 November 2024 · Fiction Whack-a-mole Sheila Ngọc Phạm We sit in silence a few more moments as there is no need to talk further; it is the right place to end. There is more I want to know but we had revisited enough of the horror for one day. As I stood up to thank Bác Dzũng for sharing his story, I wished I could tell him how I finally understood that Father’s prophecy would never be fulfilled.
