Democratic Poetics
A Gathering together of the finest.
Poems published in Poetry Matters from 2006 to 2019
One of my FINAL ACHIEVMENTS FOR 2020
A final exciting achievement FOR 2020 is to have five (5 ) poems chosen for the last Poetry Matters Journal . . .
The journal is called DEMOCRATIC POETIC . POETRY MATTERS ISSUE 40 2020
MY POEMS INCLUDED ARE:
escape with cezanne
seeing eyes
not narcissus
Marilyn
memory
I like my reflection which introduces my poetry in the journal
Colleen Keating October 2020
Poetry in my life/ my life in poetry
On reflection, the love of expressing my self in words (in the early days with rhyme) guided my way towards now, where I enjoy the pursuit of words to express my amazement with life.
My work explores the paradox and wonder of nature, the harsh realities of life, of inequality, injustice and increasing threats to our natural environment .
For me, poetry is vocational. I not so much choose it as my medium of expression as much as it chooses me. To guide my thoughts and the things I write, I prize awareness, mindfulness and an unperishing sense of wonder about the world. I read poetry and write every day.
And I am inspired by Lee Ann Womack’s words:
when you get the chance to sit it out or dance – dance.
Special thanks to Cheryl Howard for her dedication to our poetry and for her compliling this very valuable document of some great poetry.
2020 has been the best of times and the worst of times for a writer here in Australia.
I add the proviso of ‘in Australia ‘ for with this pandemic I would not like to be in any other country. Anxiety levels here in Australia are high enough without the death rate of the rest ot the world.
I say the worst of times because
many writers need motivation and play off one another:
many writers work to the dead line of the critique group
many writers need imput from others
For some reason I found I could work on each day at my desk with out those stimului.
I say best of times because
my calendar and by 2020 year planner fell away by mid March.
That meant all my bookings to promote and sell Hildegard, my newly published book cancelled so time was free and on my hands . With nowhere to go I headed to my desk.
I was fortunate to get the final research stay at Alice Springs and walk in Olive Pink’s footsteps and fly back to Sydney on one of the final normal planes to fly for months, which meant I could work on the finals parts of Olive Pink and send for consideration by the publisher.
No sooner were we home from the research in Alice Springs – it was lockdown.
With free time and no writers’ meetings,
no groups, no committments, no visitors allowed
no launches
no U3A,
no SWW, no WWN
no time taken up driving to venues
I was free to continue my writing projects and begin on a new idea.
Firstly I was able to sort and collect an interesting anthology of my poetry which began as a
book of sea poems to be called Coastal Patterns but it got bigger and soon became titled
Beachcomber not sure where it is going now!
I was able to co-edit a Picaro Poets with Pip Griffin which we called Mood Indigo (actually it was completed before the pandemic but just wanted to add it here
Next a Ginninderra Press Chap book with Decima Wraxall called Mists of Time and now a Picaro on my own – Brush of Birds
I had the motivation to send a few poems off to journals . Got lazy with Eureka when I didnt hear anything back after I sent poems which I thought were good.
And I have continued to be in each Eucalypt with a tanka and this year a haiku in Windfall.
I had two pieces of work in the Splish, Splash childrens work publ. SWW
I had the wonderful experience of having my poem translated into German and being part of the Hildegard pilgrimage.
and this week had my Christmas poem chosen for a Podcast of Pastor Tara Eastman in Central New York on HOPE