Poetry

Opus: A life in music by Pip Griffin

colleen General, Poetry , , , , , ,
 The award winning poet Pip Griffin delighted me with one of the first copies of her new poetry collection,

Opus
A life with music

Using a creative metaphor, I am proud to say I was one of the midwives in its  creative  growth and  Pip’s  birthing of the book.   The joys and nurturing of music in our lives  always came through as Pip’s poetic ideas grew .

A  great combination of life and music, a mood and a mode,  a singular voice,  that draws her readers like me to each new poem she writes. 
I am thrilled for Pip and honoured to be her friend.
 Opus: A life with music is a stunning collection, beautifully written and withheld.’ – Libby Sommer
‘“Through music, we can say what we didn’t even know we felt.” – Ed Le Brocq. What more powerful way to reflect on your journey of life than entwined with the memory of music. Exquisitely wrought, Opus gives us snapshots, sometimes softened, sometimes shocking but always honed and beautifully crafted, revealing a deep perception and intimacy as we have come to know of Pip Griffin’s poetry.’ – Colleen Keating
‘Pip Griffin’s Opus is a gently written verse memoir of her childhood in New Zealand to her mature years in Australia. References to Chopin, Mahler, Gustav Holst, Elvis Presley and many others justify its subtitle, “a life with music”. Touches of sadness, including her partner’s death and her mother’s thwarted dreams, balance the collection’s positive tone. This is poetry to read over a few winter evenings by the fire or summer afternoons in the shade of a tree.’ – Norm Neill
Opus is Pip Griffin’s eighth poetry publication. Her books include Virginia & Katherine: The Secret Diaries (Pohutukawa Press 2022), Winner, Society of Women Writers NSW Book Awards (poetry) 2022; Margaret Caro, the extraordinary life of a pioneering dentist (Pohutukawa Press 2020) Highly Commended, Society of Women Writers NSW Book Awards (poetry) 2020; Mood Indigo (Picaro Poets 2019) with Colleen Keating and The Climb Back: poems for Ted (Ginninderra Press 2021).
Two of Pip’s poems Libertango and The Dave Brubeck Quartet were published in the  recent
Women’s Ink,  Autumn 2023
       

Libertango

One winter’s evening
in an old asylum’s grounds
there’s a hub of warmth –
coffee, conversation, music

where a diminutive young woman
dances her bow across her double bass
syncopating with guitar
playing the Libertango.

They have the audience –
folk followers, musicians
poets, singers
maybe even shades of troubled souls

clapping, tapping their feet
swaying, smiling
surrendering their bodies to the seductive beat
of a sultry Buenos Aires night.

Pip Griffin

The Dave Brubeck Quartet

At twenty she shares a flat with friends
in half a house that clambers up the hill in Thorndon

adds a Brubeck record to her Bach and Brahms
buys a ticket to his Town Hall concert

and sits alone amongst expectant fans
taut as drum skins begging to be played.

Brain on fire with crooked rhythms
her body jitterbugs to teasing riffs

the dry martini saxophone stirs her spine
dizzying drumming pummels her solar plexus

and there is Brubeck – bespectacled face beaming
striding syncopated chords across the keyboard.

Pip Griffin

available through ginninderrapress/our books

978 1 76109 570 2, 86pp

Versions

Paperback

9781761095702
$22.50
 Pip is waiting for reviews of Opus: A life in music  but I share one early,  very special response from a friend that was one of the first readers of Opus and found it an enrichment to her life. What more beautiful words can one say.
Then, along comes Opus. Start to read. Read, read, read to the end. Close the book. Hold it in my hand. It’s like a living, breathing thing. Reading Opus has left me with the distinct impression I’ve been allowed into my dear friend’s inner circle.
The music references are genuinely intertwined with the sensuousness being evoked, and the life’s chapters being retold. 
If I can get to particulars, dear Pip, it’s the frankness about your childhood, teenage life, distant siblings, old and troubled parents, that infuses your writing with such authenticity. My family experience was similar in some aspects, but I could never write about it in such an honest way. The music accompanying each chapter brings enrichment to the experience of reading your words, and moves the story of your ‘life with music’ along at a healthy pace, and carries the reader with you.
I’ll treasure your Opus, Pip, so thank you for your gift.

Of Moments and Days by Graham Wood publ. Ginninderra Press

colleen General, Poetry , , , ,

Of Moments and Days by Graham Wood published by Ginninderra Press.  There was an excited  buzz as we entered  room 4 at the Hornsby Shire Library this afternoon, Sunday, July  23rd , 2023.  The poet,  Graham Wood greeted  us  at the door and we bought his new book, Of Moments and Days. The launch began with the poet  Peter Porter  welcoming us . The well known poet,  Martin Langford spoke poignantly about time  and life in a very philosophical way. You could’ve heard a pin drop as everyone waited upon his words.

And then we were read to  . . .Graham’s poetry  . . . poignant  as I wiped awa  a tear listening to the poem Centenary, laughing out loud with the poem Policy Launch, warm humour and memory of the poem The Day that Gough Got In.  I am excited to get the time to sit down and enjoy  Grahams very sensitive poetry.

An Important Note  Graham makes:

 An sincere thank you to Stephen Matthews OAM and Brenda Eldridge of Ginninderra Press for the opportunity of publication, their encouragement in doing so, and the considerable efforts they make in bringing Ginninderra Press poetry publications to fruition. 

In this, his first full collection of poems, Graham Wood considers some of the mysteries involved in time and memory. He does this obliquely rather than directly, in a glancing way. Many of the poems focus on the particular moments of experience that our memories are able to capture and preserve. Some are like snapshots or small movies, often suffused with a quirky humour. Others are more serious in tone and reach, but always retaining a lightness of touch. Graham has lived in Sydney for most of his life, after half a childhood in country New South Wales. His poems have been published in Australian and international journals and anthologies, and on a number of poetry websites. Ginninderra Press also published five of his poetry chapbooks over 2021-2022.
978 1 76109 528 3, 108pp

 

 

Some of my special poems Series No. 1 and No 2 by Colleen Keating

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I am sharing some of the poems I like to read over and over.

When I am Among the Trees

When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.

I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.

Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,
“and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.”

by Mary Oliver

 

Some of my favourite poetry No 2.

Water Flows

Water does not resist. Water flows.
When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress.
Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you.
But water always goes where it wants to go,
and nothing in the end can stand against it.
Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone.
Remember that, my child. Remember you are half water.
If you can’t go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.

by Margaret Atwood

Fourth Australian Haiku Anthology edited by Lyn Reeves

colleen Poetry , ,

 

Exciting to have some of my haiku accepted for the Fourth Australian Haiku Anthology. Thank you to Andrew Hede who encouraged me to submit. It was worthwhile.

Fourth Australian Haiku Anthology

edited Lyn Reeves

Colleen Keating

 

on my doorstop
a single rose softens
lockdown

 

birds and frogs
harmonise at dawn
Kakadu billabong

 

spring backburn
smells of last summer
waft on the wind                                                       

 

 

_____________________________________________________________

Colleen Keating

‘on my doorstop’ Windfall: Australian Haiku 10, 2022

‘birds and frogs’ Echidna Tracks: Australian Haiku 2, 2018/19                                   

Eucalypt: A Tanka Journal Issue 34, 2023 edited by Julie Thorndyke

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It is always a joy to receive the new edition of Eucalypt and especially joyful when one of my tanka is included amongst the many startling and succinct tanka . This month is no exception  receiving Issue 34 2023.  Lovingly presented
and including tanka that takes days to ponder and absorb .

 

pink glow

behind silver grey clouds

waiting

medical reports

still to be explained

Colleen Keating

 

 

 

 

 

 

t

Blue Heron Review, Very proud to have a haibun published in the latest journal

colleen Poetry ,

https://blueheronreview.com/

Blue Heron Review

Posted on under Uncategorized
BHR16 Cover Image Edit2

(Cover artist credit: Thomas A Thomas)

Welcome to our BHR 16 Spring 2023 issue of Blue Heron Review! We hope you enjoy this themed selection of poems — Sanctuaries & Places of Peace. To read the full selection of poems and view the beautiful, fine art photography included, please go to the BHR 16 page of our website. Take your time, allow yourself to leisurely sip and savor this issue. These poems will surround you with the energy of peaceful afternoons in the forest, time spent with loved ones, and the deep well of calm that exists within. Breathe, read, reflect, repeat. Thank you for joining us for this very special issue!

CONTRIBUTORS:

Poets:
M J Iuppa * John Davis * James Crews * Mary Alice Williams * Michael S Glaser * Kai Coggin * Javi Maria Cain * John M Bellinger * Tad Phippen Wente * Gloria Heffernan * B L Bruce * Beate Sigriddaughter * Jo Taylor * Patricia Nelson * Lisa Romano Licht * Andrea Potos * Kristen Baum DeBeasi * Abha Das Sarma * j lewis * Elizabeth McCarthy * Angela Hoffman * Jeannie E Roberts * Jenna Wysong Filbrun * Kathie Giorgio * Jennifer Dodge * Susan Glassmeyer * Mary Anna Scenga Kruch * Steve Bucher * Ginny Lowe Connors * Kathleen Deyer Bolduc * Helen Bournas-Ney * Penny Harter * Chrissy Stegman * Colleen Keating * Daniel Lanzdorf * Gwyneth Wynn-Davies * Ronnie Hess * Lynne Burnett * Carol Alena Aronoff * Diana Raab * Cheryl Byler Keeler * Patricia Carney * Jan Chronister * Joyce Ritchie * Joan Leotta * Michael Minassian

Artists:
Thomas A Thomas (cover artist) * j lewis (featured artist) * Fiona Capuano * Michael Jeske *

Editor’s Note:

It is with great sadness that I must share the news that we have lost a dear member of our Blue Heron Review family. Professor and poet M J Iuppa passed away last month. M J was a regular contributor to Blue Heron, and she was our featured poet for the month of March 2015. She will be greatly missed by the writing community. In honor of M J’s memory, her poem, “Drink This In,” appears as the first poem in our issue.

Send goodness and light out into our world. This will be our saving grace for tomorrow.

Peace,
Cristina M. R. Norcross, Founding Editor
Blue Heron Review

COLLEEN KEATING

winter days

On the mud-flats near an afternoons silver lake, i stop to watch a red dragon kite
soar with dips and dives on whistling air.

a child again
neck crinked back
carefree

A fisherman and solitary figure on the dunes watch this bird-like thing swirl and whirl.
Purple ribbon tails flutter, tangerine feathers swell, puffed up with air, tugging the string
the woman holds. I hum the Lark Ascending. I ask the woman why she comes each afternoon.
She replies, because looking up makes me feel so much better.

one feather
holds the worrying day
lightly

A Sydney-based, Australian, award-winning poet, Colleen Keating has four poetry collections and two verse novels published. Colleen belongs to several poetry critique groups – U3A poetry, Pennant Hills, Poetry at Writing NSW, and a Haiku group (White Pebbles). Her verse novel, Hildegard of Bingen: A Poetic Journey was double winner for a poetry book and for a non-fiction book in the Society of Women Book Awards in NSW State Library. Her new verse novel, Olive Muriel Pink: her radical and idealistic life, was launched in October 2022 in the Olive Pink Botanic Garden, Mparntwe (Alice Springs) and is being highly acclaimed.

” I do not wish women to have power over men but over themselves.” from The Dinner party by Colleen Keating

colleen Poetry, The Dinner Party , ,
To purchase The Dinner Party
   
One of the passionate visionary women on whose shoulders we stand today.
Learn more about Mary Wollstoncraft 1759 – 1797
who died during the birth of her daughter Mary Shelley (author of Frankenstein)
Her voice a luminous candle
in a darkness of patriarchy
where laws claimed women
the property of men
marriage their tenuous security.
This spirited her struggle
her weapon always her pen
Mary wrote: ” I do not wish women to have power over men but over themselves.”
It took 200 years for Mary to be reclaimed  with a controversial statue  erected  in her honour.
A Sculpture for Mary Wollstonecraft is a public sculpture commemorating
the 18th-century feminist writer and advocate Mary Wollstonecraft in
Newington Green, London.
Quick and easy to buy

The Dinner Party by Colleen Keating is available now from Ginninderra Press

colleen General, Poetry , , , , ,

ginninderrapress.com.au /books  and scroll down to The Dinner Party

  A POETIC CELEBRATION 

      OF WOMEN IN HISTORY

                        WHO DEFIED SILENCE

A poetic CELEBRATION of THE PASSION AND SPIRIT OF WOMEN 

    ON WHOSE SHOULDERS WE STAND

This  DINNER PARTY IS NOT JUST A GATHERING, A CELEBRATION

IT IS REWRITING HISORY. 

Recorded history abandoned women and they abandoned history leaving it motherless and unbothered

This is part of the long journey to reclaim the feminine in our worldly story. Then and only then might we turn this 21st  century around 

‘It was the prevailing attitude in the 1960s that women had no history. There were no women’s studies, nothing.’ – Judy Chicago, creator of the iconic art installation The Dinner Party, 2017
‘The Dinner Party by the talented poet Colleen Keating brings to light, through beautiful lyrical poetry, what for centuries has been ignored: the power and strength of women. Very little has been made known about the lives of influential women of the past, as women’s lived experience has been suppressed, even erased from history. In this collection, the poet resuscitates the experience of women from prehistory to women’s twentieth-century revolution. Her poetry traces the lives of women who demonstrated their influence, in every field including philosophy, medicine, writing, art, astronomy, suffragists and justice warriors who fought for recognition. Women who gave their lives, suffered, broke barriers, knocked down walls, smashed glass ceilings, pried open doors, who defied patriarchy in some way for all of us. Still today as women are written into history, the struggle for our reckoning towards equality and respect continues. A must-read book that honours women; women who would not be silent.’
– Dr Beatriz Copello
‘With impeccable research and deep empathy, Colleen Keating continues her powerful poetic contribution to feminist literature with the celebration of thirty-nine of the more than a thousand women forgotten, marginalised or written out of Western history. A remarkable and beautifully imagined work.’  – Pip Griffin
978 1 76109 530 6, 144pp

Versions

Paperback

9781761095306
$27.50

Vale John Egan poet, mentor and friend by Colleen Keating

colleen Poetry , , , , , ,

9th July 1949 – 14th April 2023  Vale

Brenda Eldridge (Ginninderra Press)  wrote of John:

We were deeply shocked and saddened to hear the news that John Egan died on Friday 14 April 2023.

John was a stalwart of the Sydney poetry scene. He was a member of several poetry groups and during the Covid lockdowns he felt keenly the loss of being able to meet with fellow poets. He enjoyed their company and was inspired by their energy and enthusiasm.

He was a frequent contributor to The Mozzie, tamba, The Crow and other poetry journals.

John worked hard encouraging other poets to write and to get published. This is how we knew him. He came to Ginninderra Press just over ten years ago and became one of our most prolific poets.

Stephen published seven full-length poetry collections by John, the last of which (Drifting from the Bright) has not yet been officially released. As editor of our two chapbook series – Pocket Poets and Picaro Poets – I worked with John a great deal. I was astonished when I looked up our records and found that we had published over eighty chapbooks by him!

Included in that incredible body of work are ten chapbook anthologies he edited for the groups Poetry Alive and Harbourside Poets. He collaborated with other poets in seven chapbook collections – including three with me. I am proud to say that John chose twenty-five of my paintings or photographs for the covers of his books. That was something I hadn’t even dreamed of and I am still somewhat bedazzled by his support of my work.

Supporting others was one of the most admirable things about John. From those small joint anthologies, several poets have gone on to have chapbooks and full-length collections of their own. All it takes sometimes is someone to believe in you.

Through the hundreds of emails we exchanged over the years, John became a dear friend and confidant. All our lives are the richer for having known him and he will be sorely missed.

Thank you Brenda  for these words in honour of John.

My last chat with John  was on our Wednesday Poetry evening, the week before he got the flu. He was excited as he shuffled his pieces of paper from the afternoon group saying  “You know I have got 3 poems out of this afternoon.”   Three poems !  Isn’t that amazing a week before you die, you are excited about more poetry flowing.  I can say happily John died ‘with his boots on’ as the saying goes . Sadly I wrote on Saturday to tell him how he was missed at Decima’s Launch and to tell him how proud I was being on the same page of the Ginninderra Web site. with my new book.  Sadly he never read that email. 

Light

The lighthouse throws warning beams,
sweeps the sea with its flashes
revolving like a constant planet,
pulses from a distant star
in galaxies of shipwreck dark.

Here is danger and death.
Keep well clear, keep safely on
the rolling sea where deep water
smooths your keel and you can flow
in the gentle arms of ocean.

I’m built on rock, I’m built
on the past. I do not move
as your ship moves in sheer innocence
that the sea will always protect
and nourish you. It deceives us all.

I’m here. You can rely on me.
I’ll guide you away
from ship-tearing reefs and rocks,
or clench my fingers of light
and gather you between

headlands, into river mouths,
to safe harbour here, the comfort
of quiet water that laps your hull
like a lullaby. I promise you, mariner,
captain, have faith, for you, I am the light.