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Wild: Anthology of Ginninderra Press

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So thrilled to be included in the new Anthology of Ginninderra Press  called WILD

My poem Caged  has been announced as one of the included poem and i will be reading it at the launch. 

The Anthology has been edited by Joan Fenney and includes 159 talented poets from across Australia exploring the many facets of WILD – human, environmental and metaphorical. The book will be launched on the 7th July as part of the Ginninderra celebrations in Adelaide. 

Michael and I have got flights and accomodation to be part of the fun and celebrations, the  Launch , to read my poem,  and hear fellow poets read, being part of the book shop session to sell books and a great celebratory dinner to meet all the fellow poets and the publishers.

 

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WILD:

Poems selected and edited by Joan Fenney 

Fire on Water: A Book Review

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 BOOK REVIEW by PETER F PIKE 

 

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Fire on Water   by Colleen Keating

Fire on Water—what a strikingly impressive title: and after reading this collection of Colleen’s poems, how apt and appropriate. I remember when I was quite young we purloined some dry-ice from a cold storage facility and put some in a pool of water left in the gutter after a shower. We were fascinated by the bubbles of gas and cloud of vapour that resulted from the chemical reaction. We were just about to leave when an older chap came along, squirted some cigarette lighter fluid onto the puddle and ignited it. Fire on water we were impressed then as I was yesterday when I read Colleen’s poetry book. 

A small suite of poems on downsizing especially resonated with me as we sold our family home last April after 45 years. On page 41 belongings one day my heart unlocked / I donated some and ordered a skip / emptied the garage returned the key / it felt like a heavy pack moved / off my back after a long hike I walked / lightly feeling so much had owned me … 

Colleen’s interest and observation of the minutiae of life is fascinating—only a poet of some standing could record 

‘a tiny brown sparrow in the gutter defies fragility / as it tackles a twig too big for its flight’… taken from choice on page 108. part of the section entitled Exultation. From the same section on page 110, this gem: 

the vicissitudes of a blue butterfly  

she lavishly opens her wings
teal-blue fans quiver  
playing warm still air
motley light from the trees

she darts and dives 
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dodges the many hazards 
with angular flight 

creole-eyed she alights to sip
from sweet honey-dewed 
red-dressed grevilleas
moves like notes of music 
up and down around and in me
with lightness and freedom

i think of shy miss butterfly 
sprawled in Eliot’s poem 
pinned and wriggling on the wall

I know dull blue of wings 
etherised   
silver-pinned under glass

today her iridescent triangles of blue
flash with the sun   like flying jewels
intoxicated with life

The vivid images conjured up by Colleen’s poems are spectacular word-pictures that impress themselves on the reader’s mind. They are recalled with ease long after reading.

The appealing illustration on the front cover is by Colleen’s daughter Elizabeth. 

Colleen’s poetry exposes us to a large range of emotions. Stillborn on page 75 forces us to face up to a situation that as Australians we are, in the main, still reluctant to address. 

winter darkens our land
the tree outside my window
is stark and bare
close up new life is tightly budded 

the news says
our country has turned back refugees at sea people seeking asylum
returned to face those they flee 

history like a drawbridge is pulled up closed off
humanity is stillborn 

hearts are cold
fear deadens minds 

the everywoman in me weeps for the birthing 

the woman with child is weeping the woman in every woman
if you are not weeping
ask why 

Colleen’s book is 122 pages, Perfect Bound published by Ginninderra Press ISBN 978-1-76041-351-4 and is priced at $22.50 and is highly recommended. 

Page 26 FreeXpresSion– March 2018 

Thank you Peter Piper for a great review of Fire on Water and thanks for your dedication to poetry and poetry writers.

 

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Spring: A poem by Thomas

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SPRING

by Thomas Keating-Jones

 

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Daffodils dancing.

Snowdrops swaying.                  snow bells

In the spring sunshine

the flaming winter fire branches

were erupting

from flowerbeds like a volcano. 

Spring was coming for us

as we wandered the winding paths. 

Thomas Keating-Jones

Age 7

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Photos by Elizabeth Keating-Jones

Thomas in Greece

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Thomas in Greece

The Acropolis

You can see the cracks in the marble 

from the battle for Greece. 

 Who would lead Athens?

There is power here.

I can feel the ancient power 

in every step.

 

Poseidon surely did strike his trident here!

When you sit your mind can hear 

echoes of the ancient battle.

You can picture the Gods inside the temple.

You can feel the shadow rising upon you 

as you walk in the footsteps of the Gods.

 By Thomas  Keating-Jones

March 2018   aged 7

 

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Nautilus Award

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                      Great news

Fire on Water has won a Silver Nautilus Award

 

 

 

April 2018

Dear Colleen,

Congratulations! Your book has been selected as a 2017 Nautilus Award Winner.

Title:  Fire on Water

Author:  Colleen Keating

>  touchstoneten@gmail.com

Publisher:  Ginninderra Press

Award:     SILVER 

Category: Poetry

We are deeply glad to welcome you to the honored and respected group of Nautilus Book Award Winners. You can be justly proud of your book’s selection as an Award Winner in the 2017 Nautilus season, which brought a record number of entries and a magnificent diversity of high-quality books.

The full roster of 2017 Nautilus Award Winners will be posted on the Nautilus website by the end of April.  We will send notice to the entire Nautilus mailing list when the Winners are posted on the website, so you can alert friends and colleagues to this exciting news.

You have written &/or published a book that carries a potent message – whether in text or photos – and we are grateful for the chance to help promote and celebrate your book by making it visible as a Nautilus Award Winner. We hold the intention with you that your book will find much recognition and success with this significant award.

On behalf of all the Nautilus reviewers, judges, staff, and volunteers, thank you for sending your book as an entry to the 2017 Nautilus program. May your book’s message bring hope, wisdom, healing, and joy to many people. We are proud that your book’s journey as a Nautilus Winner will contribute to Better Books for a Better World.

With warm regards,

Mary Belknap

for the Nautilus Book Awards team

 

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Thomas a poem :Canterbury Cathedral

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Thomas Keating-Jones  . . . Poet

 

POEMS FROM OUR JOURNEY TO CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL

BY

THOMAS KEATING-JONES

 

 

 

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The Glimmering Windows

The windows are bright and colourful
You can make out the story
following the pictures that you find.

Details show the past is there.
The candles flicker
when you put in your prayer.

It is ready to keep it
and send it to God.

 

 

 

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The Prayer song

by

Thomas Keating-Jones

 

The people are singing,

the whole cathedral is filled
with beautiful music and prayers.

It stopped me .
My body could hear
the beautiful notes that they sing.

It caught my ear
and I started singing
without even knowing
that I was joining in

a prayer song.

 

 

 

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People have been coming on pilgrimages to Canterbury for centuries and today’ our adventure was a pilgrimage, well a drive and picnic to see Canterbury Cathedral with the family. It is of course famous for the Canterbury Tales by Chaucer and referenced by Charles Dickens and then Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot to name a few.

It is one of the oldest and most famous  Christian structures in England. Foundered in 597 AD  and rebuilt and blessed in 1070 AD. It was originaly a Benedictine monastic community. Its architecture is breath-taking.

A pivotal moment in its history was the murder of Thomas Becket,  Archbishop to Henry 2nd He received 4 stabs to the back by 4 knights of  the King,  just after dawn at the first Mass  of the day 29th December 1170,

 

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To continue my pilgrimage with Hildegard of Bingen and my continuing research for my book . . . It was in 1170 that Hildegard received word in Bingen of the martyrdom of Thomas Becket . She heard of his holiness and courage and his murder via artisans travelling for work. It energised her to rise up for one last missionary journey and travel to Cologne to lecture once more against greed and corruption and power of the Church.

Sound familiar ?

What’s changed?

Hildegard has given her life to make us listen and see. She was in her 70 ‘s and  her body was tired but she set out one last time to warn people to listen to the Light .  For me the Canterbury cloisters being around 12th century caught my attention because the cloisters of Hildegard’s Church were destroyed in the Thirty Year War in the 14th century and over the centuries little is left to imagine.

 

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Now I kneel at the altar where the murder took place and reflect on this sculpture of suffering above. The black metal fluted cross and the swords hanging from the wounds and shadowed on the wall behind is very compelling.

Below the altar in the paved stones is the word Thomas.

Today it is appropriate to have my grandson Thomas sitting on the paved stone near me with his fingers curving through the printed words  Thomas.

 

 

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We together light a candle and Thomas closes his eyes and prays. I didn’t try to eavesdrop his whispered mumbling, except his last words came louder   “and thank you for the world . Amen “ 

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An Adventure to Sheffield Park

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“I am so glad that I live in a world where there are Octobers” Anne of Green Gables.

After a great Prague experience we are back in England with the Keating-Jones family in Sussex about 2 hours south of London. And today an autumnal walk and picnic to a stunning place that is not too far from Elizabeth’s home called Sheffield Park. It is beautifully cared for National Trust .

The garden is just coming into its own with dazzling displays of colour reflecting in the lake and shinning views around every bend.

Thomas at school so only Elizabeth and  and little Miss Eleanor was with Michael and me.  Our daring  little Miss Eleanor turning 2 on Sunday  (October 2017)

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SISSINGHURST CASTLE

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Sissinghurst Castle and garden created by Sir Harold Nicholson and the famous Vita Sackville-West, (famous as a poet and writer in her own right and intimate friend to Virginia Woolf, and inspiration for Orlando) .

It is one of the most idolised gardens in England, set out in a self- assured and inspirational manner. It is a joy to walk around. Even nearly a century later Vita Sackville-West ‘garden is featured regularly on twitter.

There is a delicacy to the plan and plantings, striking juxtapositions of colours, a gathering of shades of purples to the summer garden of reds and golds and of course the famous white flowered gardens .

This is a garden with a surprise around every corner .

Secret gardens everywhere and little miss Eleanor leads us curiously around.

Thanks to the National Trust for there love and care of this garden .

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Reflection on Launch

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Fire on Water was launched on Sunday at the NSW Writers Centre by the Internationally renowned poet Beverley George with the symbolic cut of a teal blue ribbon tied around the books.

Out the window the Jacaranda trees like purple rain gave us a spectacular show all afternoon.

‘always surprise
as i listen
to the easy drift of jacaranda blossoms
settling to a hush ‘

It was an afternoon of poetry reading, friendship, sharing nibbles and a drink, with Cello music played by Nigel Parry giving a touch of the transcendent to the occasion.

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Launch of Fire on Water

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COLLEEN’S    Thank you speech at the  launch of Fire on Water
Beverley, thank-you for launching this new and beautiful book and for your affirming words. I appreciate your belief in writing and in poetry and for affirming me.
You are amazing with your generosity . I wonder at you. No one would believe the dedication

you have to writers and writing.beverley at launch

I appreciate you all being here for the launch

So many happy warm smiling faces.
As you can imagine I am thrilled this new book has come to fruition.
I love the book. It has a good feel and I am very proud of it.
I like to think , as Mary Oliver says it allows each poem to sit on its page and breathe
And I like its spaciousness .

I thank the publisher Ginninderra Press for this effort.
Especially Stephen Matthews for his friendly and helpful encouragement .

Most of you are aware writing is a lonely trek, a long haul, a footslog, an odyssey. Sometimes lost in the bush, sometimes all at sea, sometimes desert-dry, sometimes energising but mostly a solitary and gruelling task and as a writing community we appreciate that, and it is good to be here together to celebrate writing.

Getting published is an interesting process and a wonderful journey. Many of you have been a part of that and I appreciate you all.

Especially thanks to Michael for his encouragement, patience and support . And my daughters and their families for their support today.

 

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And my fellow writers and fellow poets .
To Sue and the women writers group and especially Decima I deeply appreciate your friendship, affirmation and critiquing. We are a good team.
To Norm and the Wednesday evening poets for your critique thanks . my time with you is invaluable
and to Ron and the U3A poetry appreciation group at Eastwood thanks for being here .
Finally to Helen and Nigel Parry for being here and for the beautiful cello music which has added a touch of the transcendence to the day.
In Romeo and Juliet some of you might remember Romeo’s amazed outcry

“It is the East and Juliet is the sun”

I see the creative world as the east, and the hope, the beauty the beloved as the sun
for us as Australians, you and I have the intimate feeling for the way every morning firey light rises and blazes against the dark and conquers the ocean,
it is the fire that rises from water.
Fire on Water is a miracle in itself but for me in my title poem, the second miracle is that we are alive here and now.

and so the poem fire on water pg 20

A poetic mind, writer and/or reader
is lively and inquiring, compassionate, curious, angry, full of music,
full of feeling.
and this poem that won first place in a 2016 competition in Positive Word
I feel is a touchstone for this
wood pigeon p115

and the anger like blood that spills from the pen pg 50
out of sight out of mind pg 80

and finally to me poetry is also about taking wings and I hope it plants a seed for your everyday to take wings
taking wings pg 107

And now I give the mic to Michael to read Waiting pg 18. and then to Jo to read her selection of poems. Thank you all once again for being here