AustLit

A poem in which the speaker describes climbing a high mountain and looking down on an abyss, sunlit valleys and sighting a mountain spring. The landscape and all its features appear to be allegorical of different life experiences.

Mańkowski begins the column with reference to state propaganda in Communist Poland, which, he writes, invariably drew laughter from readers and viewers for its pomposity and absurdity. He then goes on to quote some critical comments by the head of the Rada Naczelna Polskich Organizacji w Australii (the Chief Council of Polish Organizations in Australia) about Polish Australian television program 'Oto Polska' (This is Poland) and about Perth-based Polish Australian radio program 'Radio Kurier', and to compare the tone of these comments to the arrogance of the official media in Communist Poland. (The radio program 'Radio Kurier' is affiliated with the periodical Polish Kurier, in which this column appears.)