The following poem maybe salacia in A Call to Listen was chosen for the Central Coast Poets Inc 2014.
I was invited to read my poem at the launch and was fortunate to be able to do so.
My sister Kay Ward who lives on the Central Coast was present, my husband and my Grandson Lachlan Keating. An exciting day.
maybe salacia
she walks the beach
scanning shells on the edge
in a loosely tied sarong
hair swept up under a wide brim hat
face lined with many lifetimes
fishermen and sailors nod and smile
sea gulls rummaging along the shore hardly notice
she walks barefoot on the sea-soaked sand
tracing the waving wrinkled water mark
bites of the winter sea at her toes
she bends to receive tumbled gifts
golden whelks, salty periwinkles
spindled limpets black neuritis spotted voluted cowries
some say she listens to the music of the sea
others say she’s a drifter
or perhaps
an artist living her art
a poet living a poem
some say she belongs to the deep
maybe goddess of the sea
now and then she gazes out
to where the sea and sky converge
as if she yearns
to slip between the sentinels of crashing waves
to her home beyond