Poetry

Mozzie ed Ron heard, poetry journal

colleen Bush walks, Poetry , , , , ,

 

THE MOZZIE

Volume 31 Issue 03, October 2023

The Mozzie is a small press poetry magazine published in Queensland that publishes the work of established and emerging poets.   Ron Heard is the very dedicated editor. Volume 31 ssue includes 2 poems of mine.  I submitted to the magazine during the year and love it when a poem of mine gets chosen to be published.

MozzieOctober 2023, published two of my poems,

counting summers

morning litany after the referendum

It was very rewarding to be in the journal with a writer friend and supporter Pip Griffin.

Pip’s latest book Opus: A life in poetry is promoted and a poem from her new book is published.

Congratulations Pip Griffin.

Thank you to Ron Heard for his dedication to poets and our poetry. 

morning litany  after the referendum

air tastes brittle         hits hard                    
there has been no rain for weeks 

leaves   dusty and bluish 
curl in foetal positions 

caught 
in a Philip Glass time warp 

the antiphon of morning birds 
is devoured by a leaf mulcher

roaring hungrily nearby
the tree out the back sacrificed

 because someone said it was dead    
lies weeping    cut up in small offerings

birds that nested in its knotted hollows
have fled 

and I have  to turn away from
being a witness 

away from tv images 
Gaza Ukraine Mali Israel

garish glint of metal and concrete mock
new home units towering out of place

the riff of rivulets in Coups Creek muted
in welled-up rock crevices   

later   leaning into the warm dimpled trunk
of a doyenne of the bush  I watch a flock

of spotted pardalotes   their tiny pieces of sun
wild and cheerful  skittle the day

 

The Crow edited by Brenda Eldridge publ. Ginninderra Press

colleen Poetry , , , ,

 

Excited to have my poem Exodus chosen tor The Crow. Thank you Brenda and Ginninderra Press .

The Crow is a Pocket Poets collection of poetry edited by Brenda Eldridge at Ginninderra Press.  It might be small but it pulls a punch in a very reflective way.

A quarterly poetry journal published in March, June, September and December each year it has become a coveted journal to be chosen as an entry.

In the introduction From the Editor,  Brenda Eldridge  writes, 

“The results of the recent referendum have been a sobering  wake-up call for Australians. It prompts the question Who are Australians?”

And I like to think that our poetry might struggle with the way through all this  into the answer and find a way into the future and maybe sometime one day we  as a nation will find the oneness many of us wish for and we will find the air beneath our wings . 

My poem  exodus is set in with  many well known poets and next to a well known Canberrian poet Hazel Hall. 

So once again I say thankyou to Brenda and Ginninderra for giving us another place to publish  our work. Thnks Brenda for  your affirmation and support of poets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The American poet Jane Hirchfield  says the secret title of every poem is tenderness and a poem that hasn’t found it through the anger or despair or bewilderment  is probably mot there yet . She said in an interview I heard, that one stitch in a fabric of rant  such as the bowing to beauty, grief, compassion or kinship allows one to get up the next morning and open their eyes.  And we must find a way to that. 

When we become disillusioned with our world view, the framework  we see through, that for so long has ‘supported,’ ‘comforted’  ‘controlled’ us with its surety  be it an institution of religion, marriage, belief etc. it can be hard to change. We actually can become stuck and we can let ourselves die inside . There is a saying found on a tombstone 

Here lies . . . .
died at 45
buried at 75.

Yet if we jump from the edge we can  find we fly . The hard part is one cannot fly until they jump  and one cannot jump till they are either pushed or better, feel trustful or supported by love  to do it. 

exodus

so she left her boats behind
took courage to leave familiar shores
broke the yoke of fear 
untethered the bridle
and broke the bondage of institutional rule
that held her safe for decades

stepped into the ocean deep
and found herself battered  bruised 
buffeted    till finally buoyed by joy 
of trees and flowers light and moon and seas
like a fledgling bird leaving its nest 
she found the air beneath her wings 

fourW thirty-five Anthology from Booranga Writers Centre, Charles Stuart University by Colleen Keating

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We spent a very rewarding afternoon  being part of a group of writers for the launch  of the latest Booranga Writers Anthology – fourW thirty-four New Writing.  Thank you to the editor David Gilbey for his passion and hard work to bring this creation to fruition. David acknowledges a team of dedicated helpers and the large gathering at the  Sydney launch was testament to gratitude of Australian writers. I like how David Gilbey describes our writings –  “diverse, multi-layered &polyvocal writings . . .celebrated pieces are just a few of the gem in our ‘treasury of literature'” The launch was held in the auditorium of the AIT at Ultimo.  The new anthology,  fourW thirty-four  includes new work from 76 writers from all over Australai and from overseas,  more than 20 stories and fifty poems. It was special to be standing side by side with writer friends published, Pip Griffin, Antonia Reiseger and a few other familiar faces and to be published with some of our top poets Judith Beveridge, Andy Kissane, Mark McCleod, Damien O’Brien.  

 

 Dr. John Stephenson  a novelist who has written many thoroughly researched novels including The Optimist which is an early look at the poet Christopher Brennan. He gave a wonderful address . The words I remember ‘where are you my beloved country’ and how standing lost one evening in a dead end on the way to Wagga Wagga he got out of his car to see the sign and found once again his beloved country there surrounding him and he knew everthting would be alright. It was very uplifting .

Everyone who was present got to read their work and it was powerful to hear the voices of so many of our poets and short stories writers from all around the country.

I felt very honoured to read my published poem Intrusion. It is an unusual set out for me but it wrote itself one day when I couldnt take the violence intruding into my lounge room any more and then the low prioity  the subjects in the last stanza were given and the conclusion to make light of everything with the cat news . 

How can we change this low brow news that is our daily and nightly story?

Unable to get the spacing to work on this blog I photographed the poem above, Thanks to editor, David Gilbey

intrusion

and a WARNING
the following contains scenes
that may disturb some viewers
discretion is advised

Ah says the screen gotcha

disarmed
i rummage for the remote
under a pile of papers or behind the cushions
and flick to another channel
i don’t need these unnecessary images

flip back in time to hear the newsreader gloat
if this has distressed . . .

tipped you over the tipping point
overwhelmed your lonely hard cruel overwhelmed life
sunk you even deeper into the pit

you can contact LIFELINE
or 1800RESPECT

back to the news
no longer raising the shock flag

another woman is murdered today
indigenous incarceration ratio increased
2000 feared drowned in Pakistani flood
and a new cat show
where cats learn to walk tight ropes

 

 

Under the magnolia tree: Women Writers Network Christmas Party. by Colleen Keating

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Under the Magnolia Tree 2023

It was very special to catch up with the WWN (Women Writers Network ) for our annual Christmas Party  under the Magnolia Tree. So much friendship, scumpious  food, (including  the festive  rocky road and coconut ice and home made Christmas cake)  champayne toast to our writing and to 2024,  poetry reading and sharing of achievements,   fun and lots and lots of laughter.  I read a poem  about peace as I thought that was appropriate at this time with the Gaza War on and Christmas with us, . It was lovely to meet the new women who have joined the group writing novels, poetry, memoir, short stories, play  and all commented how supported they felt the group was towards their writing and a help to their commitment . I remembered when I joined about 20 years ago how important the writing group was and still is to this day as:

  1. an incentive to produce the next piece of writing
  2.  a safe place to read it aloud and hear what others thought of it
  3. valuable for the good suggestions and chat about writing itself
  4. the friendship of other like-minded women on a similar quest to write and write their best.
  5. life-giving  as i love the dead line of each week and it becomes a highlight and focus of the week

Can you see us writers huddled under the magnolia tree?

The magnolia reached its arms out around us listening to our stories and laughter.
Just a  few blossoms were open exuding its marvellous perfume. The Flame tree lit up the garden
and jacarandas still held in  after all the wind for the occasion . Their blossoms sshowered along the path
as if a purple carpet for all writers who come this way

     

 

 

Taking Sides

Today I am taking sides.
I am taking the side of Peace.
Peace, which I will not abandon
even when its voice is drowned out
by hurt and hatred,
bitterness of loss,
cries of right and wrong.

I am taking the side of Peace
whose name has barely been spoken
in this winnerless war.
I will hold Peace in my arms,
and share my body’s breath,
lest Peace be added
to the body count.                                                                        

I will call for de-escalation
even when I want nothing more
than to get even.
I will do it
in the service of Peace.
I will make a clearing
in the overgrown

thicket of cause and effect
so Peace can breathe
for a minute
and reach for the sky.
I will do what I must
to save the life of Peace.
I will breathe through tears.

I will swallow pride.
I will bite my tongue.
I will offer love
without testing for deservingness.

So don’t ask me to wave a flag today
unless it is the flag of Peace.
Don’t ask me to sing an anthem

unless it is a song of Peace.
Don’t ask me to take sides
unless it is the side of Peace.

by Irwin Keller

 

Short listed Poem in the National Cherry Festival Poetry Competition by Colleen Keating

colleen Poetry , , ,

 Lambing Flat Regional 

      Young Branch                                          

Celebrating 41 years of FAW Writers in Young

 

November 20th 2023

 

2023  National Cherry Festival Writing Competition.

Dear Colleen,

Congratulations, you have sent an entry to our 2023 writing competition. This entry has come back from the Judges as a short listed work.  

The awards will be announced at the Cherry Festival event at the Railway Platform in Anderson Park, Lovell Street, Young 

on Sunday, December 3rd 2023 at 10.30 am. Results will not be published prior to this. You will be notified later that day.

You are invited to attend to receive your award, however, if you are unable, this will be sent to you by mail the following Monday, 4th December 2023 with result sheets. 

Any further information please contact us on 02 6382 2614 or 

0408 739 733 or or by email on dwyerjoan@bigpond.com   

RSVP please by December 1st 2023  if you will be attending.

Thank you for entering our competition.

Regards from the FAW National Cherry Festival Writing Competition Committee.

Joan Dwyer     Competition Co Ordinator. 2023

Thank you to a well organised Poetry Competition. The certicicates arrived.

Some say why both with certificates. Well it is still very nice to see appreciation of our work.

From the Dust of Stars by Colleen Keating Nov. 2023 Ginninderra Press

colleen Poetry, Poetry Collection now available , , , ,

Colleen Keating / From the Dust of Stars

Pocket Poets 216

$6.00

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‘You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.’

Max Ehrmann, Desiderata: A poem for a way of life

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Thank you to Ginninderra Press especially Brenda Eldridge  affirming and supporting the publication of my new poetry. It includes the poem From the Dust of Stars  which was short listed in the recent National Poetry Competition 2023 Giving Women a Voice.  I hope you can buy it and enjoy. 

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Contents

on drifting cloud
balancing act
Don’t Look at the Islands
after you left
Tanka
progress
From the dust of stars
the armchair
decluttering
out of control Rock-hopping
koan
beach erosion
Spring
death by stealth
beach closed
A second chance…

Eucalypt: A Tanka Journal Issue 35, 2023

colleen Poetry , , ,

Eucalypt Issue 35, 2023. has arrived . It is a beautifully presented journal thanks to the editor, Julie Thorndyke . It is a special craft to write a tanka. So much is said in 5 short lines , 31 beats. It is great to be published with the many seasoned tanka writers . It was great to see my friends Andrew Hede and Michael Thorley included.

       

a new sandbar
slows the river’s rush
towards the sea
sometimes in my life
I wonder why I hurry

Colleen Keating
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first memory
my bassinette passed
over the fence
to the baby sitter –
the night full of stars

Michael Thorley
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in a glass jar
on a surgeon’s bookshelf
a baby’s heart
she knew
els beside a headstone
replacing the white roses

Andrew Hede
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Shortlisted poem in the 2023 Society of Women Writers NSW National Writing Competition by Colleen Keating

colleen Poetry , , , , ,

It is very excited to have a poem shortlisted in the 2023 SWW NSW National Writing Competition  Giving Women a Voice. Thankyou to organisers and judge Judith Beveridge

Dear Colleen,

Your entry, From the dust of stars in the Society of Women Writers NSW National Writing Competition is shortlisted. The winners are announced at the Society’s monthly event in the Dixson Room, the State Library of NSW on 8 November. Judith Beveridge, the Poetry Judge will be there to give her report.

Dear Colleen,

Your entry, From the dust of stars in the Society of Women Writers NSW National Writing Competition is shortlisted. The winners are announced at the Society’s monthly event in the Dixson Room, the State Library of NSW on 8 November. Judith Beveridge, the Poetry Judge will be there to give her report.

 Warmest Congratulations and best wishes

Maria

Maria McDougall

The Society of Women Writers NSW Inc.

womenwritersnsw.org

SHORT LIST  National Writing Competition 2023 – POETRY

 

PIPPA KAY FOR MARBLES

COLLEEN KEATING  FOR THE DUST OF STARS

LILY NASON FOR HOMESICK  ON A BALCONY SOMEWHERE IN PARIS

MARGARET RUCKART FOR CHROMOSOMAPERSON

JOANNE RUPPIN 

AND THE WINNER IS . . . . . . .  MARCKART RUCHART AND SECOND  PIPPA KAY

The photo is taken on

CONGRATULATIONS  TO THE WINNERS : I FEEL VERY HONOURED
TO BE SHORTLISTED WITH THESE GREAT POETS. I MISSED OUT BUT I AM PROUD OF THE POEM I WROTE

 

Judge’s Report – Judith Beveridge

Thank you to the Society of Women Writers for the honour and privilege of judging this year’s poetry prize for which there were 44 entries. I enjoyed the variety and vitality of the poems entered. Although most of the entries were in free verse, there was plenty of evidence that rhyme and stricter forms are not an entirely forgotten discipline. Whatever the form being used and with whatever success, I sensed honest voices dealing with real experiences. In judging the award, I looked for poems that made imaginative and inventive use of language, poems that showed a compelling engagement with subject matter, poems that had control over form and structure and poems that demonstrated masterful use of sound, imagery, lineation and rhythm to carry the meaning.

 

Winner: Chromosomapoem: I chose this poem as the winning entry because of the elegance and sophistication of language and subject matter. It addresses sex differences in a clever and witty manner. The linguistic quality is sustained throughout the poem as well as the use of form which enables the poem to embody and convey its thoughts in a memorable and powerful way. The poem shifts skilfully between historical and personal reflections on the biological and social realities determined by male and female sex chromosomes. The poem is a complex weave of humour and seriousness, executed with bravura and style.

 

Highly Commended: Marbles: This poem uses the highly challenging sestina form to excellent effect and has avoided the pitfalls of the sestina by being compact and economical. Form and content in this poem are beautifully married and generate an organic reading experience. The poem has as its subject matter the passing on of generational knowledge and experience – grandmother to grandchildren – thus the repetitions embedded in the sestina make it an excellent formal choice. The conversational style, in tandem with the poem’s formal requirements, create buoyancy and power. A tender and finally achieved poem.

 

Commended: Homesick on a Balcony Somewhere in France, no, not in Paris: This poem travels seamlessly through a wide range of feelings: humour, nostalgia, a sense of aloneness and displacement, as well as an acute awareness of time’s passing, both geologic time and personal time are juxtaposed to great effect. These tones and feelings are embodied in the movement and flow of the cadences and rhythms across the lines. This is a moving, engaging poem.

2022    SO PROUD TO BE MENTIONED THREE TIMES IN THE SHORT LISTED

PROGRAM FOR THE SOCIETY OF WOMEN WRITERS  COMPETITIONS 2022

SHORT LISTED IN POETRY BOOK  OLIVER MURIEL PINK

SHORT LISTED IN NON-FICTION BOOK OLIVE MURIEL PINK

SHORT LISTED IN NATIONAL POETRY COMPETITION 2023 FOR PETAL  BY PETAL

We are delighted to announce the shortlist for the Members’ Book Awards 2022. Congratulations to the authors involved and thank you to our judges.
Alphabetical by author

FICTION JUDGED BY MARGARET WICK

Maureene Fries   Stones. Bones and Hollyhocks
Helen Lyne   Disappointment and Other Joys of Life
Catherine McCullagh   Secrets and Showgirls
Susan Steggall   The Heritage We Leave Behind
Julie Thorndyke   Divertimento
Kelly Van Nelson    The Pinstripe Prisoner

NON FICTION JUDGED BY SYBIL JACK

Valerie Clifford  Fijian Shadows
Jan Conway   Skimming the Surface – Expats in Kiribati
Robyn Elliott   Sing the Burnt Mountain
Kate Forsyth & Belinda Murrell   Searching For Charlotte
Colleen Keating   Olive Muriel Pink
Christine Sykes   Gough and Me

POETRY JUDGED BY CARMEL BENDON

Anne Casey   Portrait of a woman walking Home
Anne Casey   the light we cannot see
Antoinette M. Diorio   Attachments
Pip Griffin   Virginia and Catherine, the Secret Diaries
Colleen Keating   Olive Muriel Pink. Her radical and idealistic life. A poetic journey
Denise O’Hagan   The Beating Heart

CHILDREN & YOUNG ADULT JUDGED BY GAIL ERSKINE
SPONSORED BY CHRISTMAS PRESS

Libby Hathorn   The Best Cat the Est Cat
Libby Hathorn & Lisa Hathorn Jarman   No! Never! A cautionary tale
Pamela Rushby   The Mummy Smugglers of Crumblin’ Castle
Pamela Rushby   Interned
THE SHORTLIST
National Writing Competition
We are delighted to announce the shortlist for the National Writing Competition 2022. Congratulations to the authors involved and thank you to our judges.
Alphabetical by authorsSHORT STORY FICTION JUDGED BY JENNY STRACHANAlexandra Dunn   Violet
Paulette Gittins   Forget it Jake
Meira Gorcey   Looking for Peace
Felicia Henderson   Gardens in the Rain
Julie Howard   Recipes for Sisters and Wives
Judith O’Connor   The Past is a Dangerous FriendSHORT STORY NON -FICTION JUDGED BY PAULA McLEANCarmel Bendon   Birds of a Feather
Pippa Kay   Fear Itself
Stephanie Phillips   Here, There and Everywhere
Judy Rowley   The Only Way
Sally Jane Smith   Blood and Gratitude
Gwen Wilson   Living in the Shadow of TitoPOETRY JUDGED BY EILEEN CHONG
SPONSORED BY GINNINDERRA PRESSAnne Casey   Architecture of Chronic Pain
Colleen Keating   petal by petal
Meira Kirkwood   Woman to Dog
Joanne Ruppin   Bright New Home
Josephine Shevchenko   Undying the Sea
Mocco Wallert   A Stranger in my house

 

 

 

 

Response to the course on Judith Wright by Michael Griffith by Colleen Keating

colleen Poetry , , ,

Colleen Keating’s poem in response to her engagement with Judith Wright in the recent “Call to Be” course 2023

by  •  • 1 Comment

remembering Judith Wright

Did we not know their blood channelled our rivers
and the black dust our crops ate was their dust?  JW*

 

come back  meet us under the pepper trees

rugged up against Braidwood’s autumn air

in your caramel three-quarter coat

beanie and flat ribbed shoes

come back  shuffle the years

like a pack of conjuror’s cards

be the wordsmith once again

bring your gift for making love with words

your words that sear into the soul    that

once heard cannot be untold

your turn of phrase to shock

jolt us out of apathy

and talk again to us  of paradox

and how all of us are one at last

when we followed you that year

in crisp of dawn to find the platypus

you     so proud they had returned to your local creek

farm fences bejewelled with spider webs

and flecks of seedy fleece hang on barbs

our feet cracked under frosted grass  and lines

of poplars caught the first light of day

gold and pomegranate

and when we watched the polished mirror

of the creek hold a softly mellowed sky

and an arrowhead of ripples

broke into the silence of our day

as a flock of galahs lifted off as one

the pink glint of their wings

outpouring a halo of thoughts

your poetics spread before us like your life

and gave us truths we barely wanted to know

now we lean into the shame of what ‘progress’ does

come back and walk amongst us once again

Colleen Keating

Eucalypt Tanka Journal ed. Julie Thorndyke

colleen Poetry , , ,

Thank you to Julie Thorndyke for her excellent editoring of the Eucalypt Journal for Tanka. I always feek excited and honoured when Julie chooses one of my tanka for the publication.

Dear Colleen,

Thank you for your submission to Eucalypt issue 35.
I have pleasure in accepting the following poem

 

a new sandbar

slows the river’s rush

toward the sea

sometimes in my life

I wonder why I hurry

 

Colleen Keating