Anita Patel
Anita Patel has had work published in various journals including Conversations (Pandanus Press, ANU), Block 9, Burley Journal, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, Demos Journal, Mascara Literary Review, and Not Very Quiet Journal. Her poem 'Women’s Talk' won the ACT Writers Centre Poetry Prize in 2004. She has performed her work at many events, including at the Canberra Multicultural Festival, the Poetry on the Move Festival, Noted Festival, Floriade Fringe Festival, and at Word in Hand in Glebe. She was the feature poet for the Mother Tongue Showcase at Belconnen Arts Centre in 2016. She is the guest editor for Issue Two of Not Very Quiet Journal.
Have you noticedhow the purl and plain ofwomen’s talk is tangledand snarledwhen a man enters the room?Suddenly stitches are droppedirretrievablyin the middle of a patternworked on for hoursand the cosy blend of coloursdark and light is snagged and knottedbeyond repair.The ropy twistof mannish yarnweaves its wayharsh and relentless into the whispered silk of confidences,ruining the rich brocade o ... (read more)
Through damp drifts of umber ducks parade past the National Museum.A feathered armada,flashing iridescent epaulettes,they salute themselves in plate glass windows.
And a flutter of parrots –emerald and rosehails their arrival ...
a flurry of silken scarves flung in admirationlanding gently on theice pale grass.
Anita Patel ... (read more)
Two words for face in my language:Wajah from the Arabic wajhrolls off the tongue sweetlyand melts like honeyin our mouths …Wajah – a fitting sound forthe cherished tenderness ofa human face …And yet …I prefer the honest drum beatof muka. An island word harvested from salty seas andfertile earth, blown through palm frondsand tossed about in monsoon rain-coconut redolent thud of pestle inmor ... (read more)
Suddenly you accost mewith silent sepia eyes –a sallow smudge of newsprinthidden among weapons and bones.You shrink and flutterlike a frightened bird trapped in the crimson mesh of your wedding sari.I am caughtin your dark gaze in the tattered traceof hands and face:ragged remnants of a fragile gift carefully wrapped and dispatched with good ... (read more)