To read my poetry out loud and listen carefully for meaning and rhythm.
When I am stuck, I record it and play it back to myself. I know there are modern methods to do this on our iPhones these days, but I still have an old portable tape recorder on the shelf above my desk which I read into and listen back, checking out the lyrical bent.
I get so much insight from this process.
Colleen Keating is an award winning Sydney-based poet. She has four books of poetry including her latest poetry book Hildegard of Bingen: A poetic journey, awarded the Silver Nautilus Award 2019 Better Books for a Better World USA.
www.colleenkeatingpoet.com.au
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Further dotting and mentions I am proud of in Women’s Ink from the Society of Women Writers in recent months.
Desert Patterns
Colleen Keating
Ginninderra Press, South Australia
When we listen, this land sings to us, holds us, nurtures us. This land is the common ground that we share. This small blue planet is the common world of our existence.
Desert Patterns is a collection of poetry that touches the membrane between two worlds with the breath of wildness and our inland journeys. In its striking imagery, we have a revelation of the significance of the land and of the burden of our Australian history.
‘Colleen’s poetic journey invokes the deep spirituality of our landscape.
She immerses us in “a multitude of gorgeous images” as we stand in Tunnel Creek remembering Jandamarra, marvel with Monet at Kakadu’s “blazing-blue lilies” and dream with cicadas:
“is it a place the gods keep/to seduce the lost like me?”
Every step of the way, Desert Patterns will entrance you.’ – Pip Griffin
Mood indigo
Pip Griffin and Colleen Keating, shared poetry collection
Picaro Press an imprint of Ginninderra Press 2020
In days of uncertainty mood Indigo with its 24 succinct and lyrical poems gives the reader time to retreat to a pocket-sized poetry book with an inner covenant of peace.
