In 2008 I received a letter from an Afghan refugee, Asif Raza.

He wrote to thank me for a random, small act of kindness.

After a performance at a folk festival, someone mentioned they were helping Asif learn to read English, so I gave them an anthology of 1000 Australian poems to give to him, a book I compiled a few years back.

Asif’s letter expressed far more gratitude than my small gesture deserved. He was astounded, he said, at the kindness he had received since arriving in Australia.

As a young man from a desert country which has no coastline at all, he chose an old short poem to express his feelings about his new homeland. This is it.

‘The Ocean Beach’

Wilfred Mailler

I weary of the sun-scorched plain,

Its yellow, sere monotony;

I want the whisper of the rain;

I want the great, blue, surging sea.

Oh just to wash away the stain

Of dust eternal and be fanned

By winds that sing the strong refrain

Of crested wave and cool, wet sand.