Contained emotion

in the play area

where kids come to see mums;

so many goodbyes.

 

We played hopscotch

skipping stones.

Listened to her songs

with poetic ears.

No poems were written

down

 

One by one the girls left

to record their voices

in a small room

on the dat.

 

They came back smiling

after something difficult

but done, over

and out into her singing:

voice soothing traffic

coming in

from the out side. 

'Soothing Traffic' was commissioned as part of Red Room Poetry's Unlocked program, held at NSW's Dillwynia Correctional Centre in 2012. Staff and residents were visited by poets Johanna Featherstone, Ali Cobby Eckermann and Gareth Jenkins, who engaged participants in a series of poetry workshops.

Identification was a major topic of discussion throughout the workshops, as poets and participants explored the importance of finding or developing an identity, especially for Indigenous Australians, and the role that poetry can play in this process. As with all Unlocked projects, the final outcome was a print anthology.