Cirrus@Austlit

The poem expresses the speaker's nostalgic longing for Australia, having returned to her native Poland, which the poem characterises as her 'sad homeland', 'cried over' by the rain. The poem describes the speaker's recurring dreams of a 'hot' country, the cry of a kookaburra in her ears.

The poem expresses longing for the speaker's adopted country of Australia, the speaker having returned to her native Poland. The speaker recalls 'kangaroos like cats/running across the road/in front of speeding cars'.

The author acknowledges the importance of Ludwika Amber's anthology of Polish Australian poetry and prose, Zielona zima (Green Winter), but questions the omission of poets including Zbigniew Jasiński, Marek Baterowicz, Liliana Rydzyńska and Ryszard (Richard) Reisner, and the inclusion of a relatively large number of poems by the editor herself.

This is a review written for Polish and overseas (but not Australian) Polish readers. Supruniuk begins with some general remarks about Polish Australian literature, and then describes the anthology's contents, listing all the authors included, noting Amber's own distinguished record as a poet, and praising the choice of prose pieces particularly. She questions the anthology's omission of the poet Zbigniew Jasiński, and the inclusion of Polish translations by Amber of (non-Polish) Australian poems. The review ends on the positive note that the anthology represents an important introduction to Polish Australian literature for Polish readers.

The essay gives an account of Polish Australian community newspapers published in the 1950s, including Echo, edited by Ludwik Tabaczyński, Forum, edited by Bolesław Korpowski, Tygodnik Katolicki, later known as Tygodnik Polski, set up by Catholic priest Konrad Trzeciak, and Wiadomości Polskie, edited by Jan Dunin-Karwicki.