SurVision Magazine

Learning French


Experience is
experience or experiment.
Experience is Ukrainians
in bear stoles.
The Alliance Française is a great
place to learn English at break times
everybody chats in English.
The city surrounded by Prussians in 1869
but who is the German teacher?
I must buy something for her.
But all the same I feel weak.
We lost Alsace and won it
back again
which explains Jean-Paul's temper.
Mosquitoes bite
because they are hungry.
He gave them a lot of support
when their mother left.
I am going to stay at home today
because I am weak.
My sister became a lawyer
to defend innocent people.
Tomorrow I have to do an entry test.
You swim enough, too much, not enough.
Insecure.
The hyphen fits between the grand piano
and the parents.
Could you lend me a book, briefly?
Today I will stay at home
because I am weak.
The noise, from upstairs.
Today we will learn the lend/borrow
distinction, the difference between
crime and retribution.
Me? I never hear it, I mean
the killings underground.
This humeur? Any mood,
or a fit perhaps.





Adam Aitken was born in London, and spent his early childhood in London, Thailand and Malaysia before moving permanently to Australia in 1968. As well as numerous articles on poetry, essays on Asian-Australian literature, and works of creative non-fiction, he is the author of five full-length collections of poetry, the most recent being Tonto's Revenge (2011). An award-winning poet, he lectures at the University of Technology, Sydney.