Month: July 2026

Jamberoo Abbey. Hope Blooms: A poem by Colleen Keating

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JAMBEROO ABBEY

We shared this beautiful poem by Colleen Keating last year but it bears repeating. I love that phrase, “gardeners of hope”…a wonderful image to take with us into the day and the new year ahead. Christmastide blessings of hope and miracles to all!

 

Gardeners of hope

perhaps when we are caught
in the world’s tumult

when we see the edge
falling away from under us

perhaps in time of overwhelm
in this wrecked and shimmering world

when we seem to be in between times
with hope a misty horizon

we can wall our hearts
put on armour of fear
turn away complacently

yet it is “the tiny not the immense”
Francis Webb reminds us
will teach our seeking eyes

Christmas beckons us
to be the gardeners of hope
tending the earth nurturing the soil
with love art beauty poetry

it calls us
to be the ones waiting
for the miracle to come

Colleen Keating

Highly Commended in the Eastwood/Hills FAW Award for Poetry 2026:

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STOP PRESS update  My poem is Highly Commended in the National Philippa Holland Poetry Competition 2026

(Excited to have my friend and poet  Pip Griffin in second place. That affirms both of us that we are writing well and being acknowledged.)

 

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Yay, my poem Old Salty has done it.

I hoped it would get honoured in something , somewhere and the Philippa Holland Poetry Competition has picked it up .

Short listed and now we wait to see its position.  Thank you to my Poetry workshop groups Rozelle and Pennant Hills for their considered readings and edits over the past years.

The photo that I had of Old Salty was taken a few years back but I knew one day words would come to find some meaning in the moment I fell in love with it.

 

Such an honour to be listed with it in Category 2: Philippa Holland Award for Poetry. Max 80 lines per poem.Read more

 

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Dear Colleen Keating,

I am pleased to announce that your entry Old Salty has been shortlisted in the poetry category of our literary competition.
The Presentation is scheduled to be held via Zoom on Saturday the 1st of August, 2026 at 2.30pm.  Short-listed entrants will need to have their entry/entries handy to read out should they be awarded First or Second Place.
The Zoom link will be emailed the day before the event.  Please let us know at your earliest convenience via return email if you are able or unable to attend.

 
Thank you for entering our competition.

 

Regards,

Carolyn Alfonzetti

Competition Secretary

Eastwood/Hills Fellowship of Australian Writers

 

 

Women’s Ink, Winter/July 2026 .The magazine of the Society of Women Writers NSWInc.

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Excited to be published in Women’s Ink, the journal of The Society of Women Writers , Winter/July 2026.
Giving WomenWriters a Voice. with my poem Red Shoes.

How wonderful this poem has found a place to be published. 

Thank you to the brilliant  and dedicated editor of Women’s Ink, Jan Conway ,for a packed and interesting journal of women’s writing.

Red Shoes

When they were lost she really didn’t notice.
A loss as inconspicuous as the turning tide.
There were other shoes, boots and loafers
heeled-blacks for dressy and sandals. 

Some days thoughts of their loss 
return and her gloom mirrors the sky –
dull slanting sun on its axis, a winter light.
So easily mislaid, forgotten, in boxes

backs of wardrobes, lost between seasons
and fashions, in throw-outs, downsizing.
Sometimes searching she feels like a lyre bird
scrabbling in tangled undergrowth of forest. 

She had not thought, 
what am I without them 
until one day when reality closes in
an elemental grief fixes her. 

She rummages trembling, staring down
memories of younger days. Now a battle 
with night. Bird song dulls, carried on wind
to her worn ears. 

Walking on, she glance down 
at her sensible shoes. Loss a deep vermillion.
The red ones, their freedom, their sparkle, 
their crickle remain a resonant memory.

 

Booranga fourW thirty five and my poem ‘Recovering Equilibrium’

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fourW – the annual anthology of new writing

Thank-you to David Gilbey Editor – fourW thirty-five for accepting my poem Recovering Equilibrium for publication  in the up and coming 2026 journal  (fourW is one of Australia’s longest running annual anthologies of new poetry and prose from Australian and international writers at Charles Stuart University ) 

 It will be exciting to meet David and the many other poets at the  official Sydney launch at Gleebooks on the Sunday 6th September. Last year we stood and read our poem and it was very special experience seeing everyone. 

Recovering Equilibrium  

A headwind from nowhere whips her off course 

as if in a sailing boat at sea.

She’s letting go the hullabaloo of diary dates 

white sails tack to ease around a buoy.

She won’t battle the storm. Rather turns her bow 

from the squall of steely clouds, away from their blades

of lightning. Her focus now is on the feathered blue sky 

to the port side of her days.

A cockatoo daily sweeps past her window. 

She imagines the call of herring gulls 

above the beeps and squeaks of machines and trolleys

their hurl and heave on the wind

a scene of turbulent freedom.

Near port, the swell of waves neap. 

A slowing rhythm.  Stillness. She ebbs and flows

 like the tide finding its pulse.

 

Colleen Keating

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Dear Colleen,

Thank you for your submission to fourW thirty-five and for your email withdrawing some of your submissions.

All work has now been read by the selection panels and the final decisions have been made.  The task was not an easy one, as we received over 300 individual pieces from more than 100 contributors from all around Australia and overseas.

We would like to publish your poem ‘Recovering Equilibrium’ if it has not already been published and there was no AI used in the writing of it (please advise us whether this is so). 

Over the next couple of weeks I’ll send you a proof copy to check as well as information about the launch(es) of fourW thirty-five.

I’m attaching a media release of the shortlists for the three Booranga Prizes for 2026, each worth $500: Poetry, Prose, Local Writing.

 With best wishes,

David Gilbey

Editor – fourW thirty-five

In the service of peace with Stephanie Dowrick

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Our Service of Peace

On the steps of the old Pitt Street Uniting Church 
 lingering autumn leaves remain 
under the hanging banner across the portal 

                       We cry out for Gaza 
                 Peace and Justice in Palestine

Welcome and cozy inside with a restive unified quiet. 
A brightly burning candle sits on a centred table 
amidst many more awaiting  to be lit.
and three burnished gold banksia flowers
apt for a winter scene 

Our leader Stephanie warm  
in a soft melon pink cloak 
led with words of ancient wisdom 

 

The Taoist peace of prayer :

If there is to be peace in the world,
There must be peace in the nations.

If there is to be peace in the nations,
There must be peace in the cities.

If there is to be peace in the cities,
There must be peace between neighbours.

If there is to be peace between neighbours,
There must be peace in the home.

If there is to be peace in the home,
There must be peace in the heart.    – Lao-tsu. .

Next even more ancient is the wisdom of the Upanishhade  
((the philosophical core of ancient Indian Vedas)  with the Shanti  mantra ending in the OM

Lead us from the unreal to the real,
Lead us from darkness to light,
Lead us from death to immortality.
Om, Peace, Peace, Peace!

Mantras

From the Baha’i Teaching 
“Look on all creation with a friendly eye.A beautiful sentiment often reflecting a shift  toward compassion, peace, and mindfulness.

From George Fox founder of the Quakers “Walk cheerfully over the world”  
( recognise the spark of the Divine in everyone.)

And finally St Francis :
‘Make me a channel of your peace  . . . 

Music 

On original instruments carried us into a peaceful other world 

Hildegard chant by an amazing soprano and Kim  Curio playing the psaltery (a harp-like zither),
and other chants and song  backed by a one stringed drone lute  possibility called an erhu 
 and tiny bells .
During the meditation   tiny bells
sounded all around the room giving a mystical feel . 

Meditation for inner Peace.

Stephanie began . .   A wise teacher has said,
“ Look through the eye of the Beloved and you will see the Beloved everywhere.’
let me see myself in  the eyes of the beloved .
Lighting the candles we shared the tapers.

Playing of light in our heart of peace.

               

 

Final reflection. 
Our call to go forward : Remember why we are here. , our purpose and perspective
The parable of the Three Stone Cutters. 

A weary traveler happens upon three men chipping away at massive blocks of stone in the hot sun
and asks each of them, “What are you doing?”

The First Stonecutter: Grunting and wiping sweat from his brow, he answers,
“I am making a living.”He is focused entirely on the paycheck, viewing his work simply as a mandatory exchange of time for money. [1]

The Second Stonecutter: He hammers away methodically and replies,
“I am doing the best job of stonecutting in the entire country.”
He takes immense pride in his craftsmanship and his own skill, though his focus is highly individualistic. 

The Third Stonecutter: Looking up at the traveler with a gleam of inspiration, he smiles and says,
“I am building a cathedral.” He may never see the finished structure in his lifetime,
but he is deeply engaged and satisfied because he knows his daily, repetitive task contributes to a grander mission. [

Our take out: we are all three stone-cutters. Which one do you want to be?

(AI  take away The moral of the story is that meaning transforms the grind. While you need a living and strong craftsmanship to get the job done, anchoring your daily tasks to a larger ‘cathedral’ or purpose provides the energy, focus, and long-term fulfilment needed to excel)