Kissing Point Probus Ladies Group at South Turramurra 3rd June 2019
A cup of tea and delicious home-made date and walnut cake then we grouped for our poetry morning.
This was our second visit. In 2018 I was invited to the Kissing Point Probus Ladies Group at South Turramurra by one of our neighbours Myra Fletcher and introduced as an established local poet. It was a great session and Myra invited us back to share some familiar poetry. Down Memory Lane. We noticed some of the group mouthing the poems as we read and enjoying the memory.
The session today was well attended and from my take everyone enjoyed the time together. I worked along with Michael and the group responded to our enthusiasm.
We had a plan for
a) Australian Poetry
Dorothea Mackellar, ‘Banjo’ Paterson, Henry Kendall, Oodgeroo Noonuccal (Kath Walker) Judith Wright, Henry Kendall.
b) General Poetry in English
William Shakespeare, John Keats, William Wordsworth William Blake, Gerard Manly Hopkins Dylan Thomas
c) American Poetry
Robert Frost William Carlos Williams Gelett Burgess
Billy Collins Mary Oliver
d) Finally, an iconic Australian humorous poem –
We didn’t get through half of what we had planned. However that was probably a good plan in itself. They were very pleased. We had to stop at a good time and they had material to take home with them.
Currently my favourite poet is the American Mary Oliver. (1935 – January 17, 2019) – Pulitzer Prize Winner in 2007. She has just recently died and I was disappointed that we didn’t get time to tease her out. I quickly read one poem of hers, good for birthdays as one gets older and we all warmed to Mary Oliver’s sentiment.
Self Portrait.
Mary Oliver (1935-2019)
I wish I was twenty and in love with life
and still full of beans.
Onward old legs!
There are the long, pale dunes, on the other side
the roses are blooming and finding their labor
no adversity to the spirit.
Upward, old legs! There are the roses, and there is the sea
shining like a song, like a body
I want to touch.
Though I’m not twenty
and won’t be again
but ah! seventy. And still
in love with life. And still
full of beans. –
We finished off as promised with a narration together of an iconic Australian poem so appropriate for these times
‘We’ll all be roon’d said Hanrahan’. by John O’Brien
The group went away with a handout of all the poems we planned to do and we felt it was an enjoyable morning.
