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.

States of Poetry Series Three - ACT | 'Mr. Darwin's Room (National Museum of Australia)' by Anita Patel

States of Poetry ACT - Series Three • 31 May 2018

'A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.'Charles Darwin Inside a structure of rainbow loops and angles spangle whirling over a cellophane lakeis Mr. Darwin’s room,exactly as he left it:cards tucked in the mirror,pictures on the wall,a basket by the fire,unassuming clutter.And all around the mutteras foreign children stop and counthis instruments and books ... (read more)

States of Poetry Series Three - ACT | 'Women's Talk' by Anita Patel

States of Poetry ACT - Series Three • 31 May 2018

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)

States of Poetry Series Three - ACT | 'Winter Pageant' by Anita Patel

States of Poetry ACT - Series Three • 31 May 2018

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)

States of Poetry Series Three - ACT | 'Wajah/Muka' by Anita Patel

States of Poetry ACT - Series Three • 31 May 2018

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)

States of Poetry Series Three - ACT | 'Cane Cutter's Bride: Museum of Fiji' by Anita Patel

States of Poetry ACT - Series Three • 31 May 2018

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)