Colleen Keating’s poem in response to her engagement with Judith Wright in the recent “Call to Be” course 2023
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
Thank you Colleen for this amazing tribute to the magic of Judith Wright’s image making, which takes us into the core of her intimate experience with the landscape around Braidwood and elsewhere. What was particularly powerful was the way you wove into your poem that painful image from her poem “Nigger’s Leap, New England” which you used as the opening two lines of your poem. In this way you bring into focus the way that all of her poetry is trying to restore a connection, a relationship with our indigenous fellows who have been so painfully marginalised in the latest referendum. Thank you Colleen! A truly beautiful tribute to the essence of Judith Wright’s creative purpose.