Advice from a Tree by Colleen Keating

colleen Finding Zen, General , , ,

 

           

                                  ADVICE from a TREE

 

Stand tall and proud.

 

Go out on a limb

 

Remember your roots

 

Drink plenty of water

 

Be content with your natural beauty

 

Enjoy the view

 

     

(Trees with their own characters)

     

(Trees on our local walk)

(A tree in grdens with a lot to say if you listen)

Some words from  poet and philospher, Herman Hesse

“For me, trees have always been the most penetrating preachers. 

I revere them when they live in tribes and families, in forests and groves. And even more I revere them when they stand alone. They are like lonely persons. Not like hermits who have stolen away out of some weakness, but like great, solitary men, like Beethoven and Nietzsche , like Hildegard of Bingen and Virginia Woofe

In their highest boughs the world rustles, their roots rest in infinity; but they do not lose themselves there, they struggle with all the force of their lives for one thing only: to fulfill themselves according to their own laws, to build up their own form, to represent themselves. 

Nothing is holier, nothing is more exemplary than a beautiful, strong tree. 

When a tree is cut down and reveals its naked death-wound to the sun, one can read its whole history in the luminous, inscribed disk of its trunk: in the rings of its years, its scars, all the struggle, all the suffering, all the sickness, all the happiness and prosperity stand truly written, the narrow years and the luxurious years, the attacks withstood, the storms endured.

Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life.

A tree says: A kernel is hidden in me, a spark, a thought, I am life from eternal life. The attempt and the risk that the eternal mother took with me is unique, unique the form and veins of my skin, unique the smallest play of leaves in my branches and the smallest scar on my bark. I was made to form and reveal the eternal in my smallest special detail.

A tree says: My strength is trust. I know nothing about my fathers, I know nothing about the thousand children that every year spring out of me. I live out the secret of my seed to the very end, and I care for nothing else. I trust that God is in me. I trust that my labor is holy. Out of this trust I live.

When we are stricken and cannot bear our lives any longer, then a tree has something to say to us: 

Be still! Be still! Look at me! Life is not easy, life is not difficult. Those are childish thoughts. Let God speak within you, and your thoughts will grow silent. You are anxious because your path leads away from mother and home. But every step and every day lead you back again to the mother. Home is neither here nor there. Home is within you, or home is nowhere at all.

A longing to wander tears my heart when I hear trees rustling in the wind at evening. If one listens to them silently for a long time, this longing reveals its kernel, its meaning. It is not so much a matter of escaping from one’s suffering, though it may seem to be so. It is a longing for home, for a memory of the mother, for new metaphors for life. It leads home. Every path leads homeward, every step is birth, every step is death, every grave is mother.

So the tree rustles in the evening, when we stand uneasy before our own childish thoughts: Trees have long thoughts, long-breathing and restful, just as they have longer lives than ours. They are wiser than we are, as long as we do not listen to them. But when we have learned how to listen to trees, then the brevity and the quickness and the childlike hastiness of our thoughts achieve an incomparable joy. Whoever has learned how to listen to trees no longer wants to be a tree. He wants to be nothing except what he is. That is home. That is happiness.”

Hermann Hesse

(BECOMING ONE. This tree fascinates me . It is early in the walk at Kur -rin-gai Wild Flowers Park)

 

Catchment – Poetry of Place Fifth Edition ed. Rodney Williams by Colleen Keating

colleen General, Poetry , ,

Sunrise over The Entrance  Central Coast

Thank you Rodney William, editor of a very interesting and packed on line journal . A valued  poetry of place collection .

I feel very privileged  to be chosen again as I was in June 2025 in Catchment  -Poetry of Place

Catchment  – Poetry of Place Fifth Edition. December 2025 to be published 21st december.

Dear Colleen,

Congratulations! We are delighted to accept the following writing of yours for the fifth issue of Catchment – Poetry of Place: 

as longer poetry –

At Matsuyama

Litchfield National Park

as tanka –

Changi

beach lookout

In the meantime, please do not circulate the text of any poetry accepted here on social media prior to our next release date.

A further email will follow, advising when Edition 5 has gone live online.

Copyright for poems published remains with their authors, yet Catchment should please be given credit in any subsequent re-publication.

With your support for this edition valued greatly, we look forward to receiving further poetry of place from you in future.

In the meantime, best of luck with all your writing!

 

Rodney Williams

Editor

Rodney Williams
Editor
Catchment – Poetry of Place
Baw Baw Arts Alliance
Gunaikurnai Country
West Gippsland, Victoria

 

Women’s Ink SWW: Spring-Summer November 2025. Ruth Park: A steady glow of the heart of Australian literature by Colleen Keating

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Very excited to have my first piece on  Australian Women Writers  published in  the latest edition of SWW Women’s Ink magazine  Spring- Summer November 2025.

Thankyou Janette Conway for such a richly packed and  enjoyable edition!  A final wonderful edition for our Centenary Year.  

My article  Ruth Park: A steady glow at the heart of Australian literature is the first in a series I am writing on Australian Women Writers and it was very apt to begin with the wonderful Ruth park  who we are proud to call one of our early members of the Society of Women Writers.

Ruth Park:   A steady glow at the heart of Australian literature 

 

“Writing is a passion I have never understood, yet a storyteller is all I have ever wanted to be.” 

― Ruth Park

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a good read can change your life. For many of us reading in the 60’s and 70’s in Sydney, the young woman writer, Ruth Park. sparked a lasting literary love affair. 

For me as a teenager, finding her debut novel The Harp in the South and later Poor Man’s Orange was my first encounter with poverty and destitute families. Through the eyes of the young Dolours I learnt of unwanted pregnancy, abortion, sex outside marriage, prostitution, child abuse, topics that were taboo at the time. I was seeing life through Dolours dreamy eyes.  A bright girl, aspiring to get a good education and escape, ‘get out of the hills’ that being the suburb of Surry Hills which was an inner-west slum, resulting from the depression and wars.

Ruth Park,  born in 1917, grew up with a pen in her hand, from when a young girl in Auckland New Zealand. In 1942 she migrated to Australia to marry Australian writer D’Arcy Niland,  (The Shiralee) her long-term trans-Tasman journalistic correspondent, and together they embarked on mutually supportive and successful careers as freelance writers.

 

Historically The Harp in the South won the first Herald Writing Competition and a condition of this award was to be published in instalments in the Sydney Morning Herald.  After reading the synopsis many people wrote to the paper to have it banned due to its candour. The paper was swamped with angry letters calling it a cruel fantasy because as far as they were concerned, there were no slums in Sydney! However the newly married Park and Niland did live for a time in Surry Hills and vouched for the novel’s accuracy.  

Further it was published in book form in 1948 by Angus & Robertson, who baulked at the novel but had to honour a ‘gentleman’s agreement to publish the winner’.It has gone on to become a classic and never out of print.  Park ’s portrayal of an Irish-Australian family living with poverty, ill health, alcoholism was scarifying. We experience the prejudice of religions,  life of the Irish, the Chinese green grocer,  and early European migrants who had come expecting  to find ‘the road cobbled with gold’  only to find it, ‘made of stone harder than an overseer’s heart’.   But always Park shows us the warmth and heart wrenching tolerance of each other. 

     

Next for me rearing my own children with the long time radio serial (3,129 episodes) of a wombat who’s brains “rattled beautifully.” and who said his bike bit him when he hurt himself falling off,  is also thanks to this prolific woman writer.  And how wonderful when with illustrator Noela Young , the characters were brought to life on paper and over a dozen books of the Muddle-Headed Wombat were born.  Like many parents of the  60’s and 70’s I have fond memories of these irresistible characters including with Wombat, a good natured female mouse called Mouse and a vain neurotic cat called Tabby.

Today, however what stands out for many young readers is her children novels Playing Beatie Bow,  set in what is now called the Rocks Area. A story of children playing a scary game and the young protagonist getting caught into the slip of time, finding her self back in the Rocks of 1870 . Here the young girl Abigail meets a family, is tripped up to stay and falls in love.  Abigail, professed to have “the gift” from an old crocheted  collar on her dress, returns to find the parallel world of friendship and love in reality.   

This novel is often on the Primary syllabus and so many children have experienced the Playing Beatie Bow excursion – where they discover the Rocks. Stairs and alleyways and old stone houses are  still there, although today renovated and prime real estate. 

Ruth Park stands as one of the major twentieth-century Australian writers, with a body of work that spans popular, professional, and literary realms. Her writing has opened social  windows onto aspects of early Australian life that were not spoken  about in her time. 

The reception of Park’s work has been shaped by the high/low cultural divide, further reinforced by prejudices that dismissed female writers as sentimental or popular, rather than serious literary figures. Park fixes her sharp, sympathetic eye on those areas of life that male writers tended to treat downplay or disregard: abortion, the exhausting care of children, the difficulties of long marriage, childbirth, and the pleasures of (married) sex. 

Park’s focus on the lives of the most marginalised groups, including working-class men and women, Indigenous peoples and immigrants, shows her as a woman before her time  who spoke truth and didn’t allow custom to get in her way.  Her lasting impact I believe, is due to the enduring quality of her storytelling and the power of her imaginative vision – her own unique ‘window of life’.

Ruth Cracknell exclaimed her to be  “A steady glow at the heart of Australian literature”  and  in this Centenary Year we are proud to call Ruth Park an early member of our Society of Women Writers.

 

Vanessa Proctor: On Wonder review by Colleen Keating

colleen General, Hildegard of Bingen, Poetry , , , , ,

I feel very proud to have two reviews  in the latest edition of  SWW Women’s Ink Magazine,  Spring- Summer November 2025.

Thank you Janette Conway for your very professional edition of our Women’s Ink.

Jan does it all joyfully and with comfort and ease.  It shows that  it is a labour of love
but it still is very demanding on time and energy and I appreciate this.

 A final wonderful edition for our Centenary Year.  

___________________________________________________

   On Wonder 

   Vanessa Proctor

    reviewed by Colleen Keating

This striking new book is filled with wonder, a delight to read either from cover to cover
or to dip into poem by poem. Full of original images it begins with family, unfolds from autobiographical
to the rich cacophony of visual arts, music, architecture, many as ekphrastic poems
and others using the powerful technique of taking on the persona such as a medieval gargoyle
in the poem Le Stryge .

I believe awe and wonder can sustain us; how taking time for awareness of the beauty
around us helps us and especially our children to grow in spirit.
At this time of increasing conflict and fraught demands on our attention, how uplifting it is to read
this collection of contemplative poetry.

On Wonder, a first collection of free verse from Vanessa Proctor, was published by Walleah Press
in late December 2024.
Vanessa is an award–winning Sydney poet and is highly acclaimed as a haikuist with three haiku
publications and co-editor of  under the same moon, Fourth Australian Haiku Anthology .

Vanessa Proctor’s poetry “encompasses an intimacy of living with minutely observed details of nature and time”.
These affirming words by Marcelle Freiman, on the back cover,  come from an appreciation of the rich use of imagery
and memory where time is all present.

Each poem is a bead of beauty, of lightness, of memory as in the wistful Cicada shells, their song,

thick with promise
of long afternoons
and lingering summers/which inevitability end
far too soon.

Vanessa writes gently of tragedy, a friend dying, a shipwreck, the desperation in Budapest 1944
where the pen is power. 

Memory as a way of living with the present and the telling of stories is succinctly expressed in Vanessa’s early poems;
sharing a bowl of steaming pho with her son, times with her father as a young girl , with her mother in Weberg 1980
and its hint of unease, with her sister

in a carefree summer spilling over
with sunshine and salt spray;

with her daughter,a poem any of us who have had a teenaged daughter will identify with.

One of my favourites is the poignant poem, Emergence about a new baby in the special care nursery,

Soon I’ll take you home
hold you,
get to know you,
from the outside in. 

Vanessa writes of an experience in an English cathedral, with the singing of a Hildegard of Bingen song,
O Quam Mirabilis Est 
(How Wondrous it is) we are touched with an abundance of spirit, carried across nine centuries
in praise of the beauty of creation,

the transformation of breath
into the energy of sound,
one expansive voice rising up,
visionary and numinous.

We were privileged to hear Vanessa talk about her new book at our SWW August meeting
and I hope this review encourages you to enjoy On Wonder. As in her poem Dragonfly,
may your reading her poetry,

“become a stillness
that dissolves into the morning ‘
  
       

Carla de Goede, Like a Small City . Book review by Colleen Keating

colleen General, Poetry , , ,

I feel very proud to have two reviews  in the latest edition of  SWW Women’s Ink Magazine,  Spring- Summer November 2025.
The first one is a review of Vanessa Proctor’s exquisite book ON WONDER.
This is the second one Like  a Small City  by Carla de Goede
Thank you Janette Conway for your very professional edition of our Women’s Ink.

Jan does it all joyfully and with comfort and ease.  It shows that  it is a labour of love
but it still is very demanding on time and energy and I appreciate this. 

 As Jan says in her editorial it has been an amazing year of celebration for the Society of Women Writers.
A centenary is no small feat for an organisation that has never faltered through all the challenges
it has been up against over 100 years  and as members and friends it has been our opportunity
to support and enjoy each other writing over the time of our membership. 

My first review was of the equiste poety collection On Wonder by the award winning haikuist  Vanessa Proctor .

BOOK REVIEW 

 Like a Small City

 Carla de Goede

Reviewed by Colleen Keating 

In a poem called, What poetry does, Carla de Goede writes: It hits you like /a wall / whacks a punch /

and haunts you. This amazing collection of poetry does just that. In reading Like a Small City, I was plunged headlong into a dark and and painful place.

The back blurb states,‘Carla’s poems are written as a celebration of survival, even the harrowing, startling, shocking poems’  Though it was hard reading it was spell-binding.

Powerful use of words, imagery and the breathing space the poet leaves for us to feel, increases an unsettling vibe. ‘He was always punching her / face /  though it happened  / only once.’  Sometimes  we are slowly relieved with a touch of nature,‘as even slugs squish out their messages / in silvery stains / their letters like spiderweb / tinsel.’  

Carla’s use of metaphor, its play, its power takes meaning beyond meaning. The sun picks at her guitar / 

and the frets grin like a mouth full of gold teeth, magma memories / bubbling out / like red jam.  and the extra associated meaning in,  Then I hear something / fantastic /and pop my head / back / in the oven of mediocrity.  

In Wake, she begins, She held the arm with the bruise / like a walkie talkie up to her lips’ 

The reader will appreciate the honesty of the surreal in Carla’s writing making it strangely freeing as sometimes marked by the intense irrational realityof a dream. There is a poignant justice slant in the experimental poem, Journey out the back door, the deep understanding of the homeless with its redemptive hint in Morning Under a Bridge, and recognise the poet’s empathy for one close to death from work radiation poisoning, with the hopeless struggle to get compensation for the children in the poem, In the Armchair. 

Like a Small City, Carla de Goede’s second poetry collection is a highly recommended read.  It was short-listed for the coveted 2022 Dorothy Hewett Award.Many of the poems in the collection have won awards and are included in anthologies.

 

In an age where “reality” is often questioned and obscured, poetry is especially powerful in its ability to capture the surreality of the present moment. This poetry collection is a valued addition to the genre of Australian women’s poetry. 

  

I will end with a favourite poem of mine, The Lake, where light shines out of  the dark.  Suddenly happiness took me / like a man with strong arms. and she continues, ’as the sun dips into the water / like a flamingo.’   

Buy a copy and experience this heart-rending journey. 

 Photo: STEWART CHAMBERS

 

Echidna Tracks Issue 16 Summer/Autumn 2026 by Colleen Keating

colleen Poetry , ,

I am very proud to be included in the latest Echidna Tracks   and honoured to be included with these amazing poets and lovers of haiku

Edition  Issue 16,Summer/Autumn 2026

Editor  Lynette Arden on November 24, 2025

grandpa’s plum tree
in its shade his grandson
savours the sweetness

Vanessa Proctor

soft drumbeats
as the service ends
a boy’s glance upward

Jo McInerney

reading the ode—
a rising sun glitters
on his slouch hat

Colleen Keating

luminous skies . . .
the wilting wildflowers
on a soldier’s grave

Samantha Sirimanne Hyde

“Australia, in the twenty-first century, is a vibrant multicultural society.

We hope to celebrate, through the haiku/senryu collected on this website,

the diversity of lifestyles, values, characters, customs, cultures,

and historical experiences of the people inhabiting Australia,

as well as the diversity of our landscapes, flora, and fauna.”

 

 

Ring the Bells by Colleen Keating: A Review

colleen General, Poetry, Ring the Bells , , , ,

Reviewed by Roslyn McFarland

Ring the Bells
by Colleen Keating
Ginninderra Press
August 2025, Paperback, 108 pages, ISBN: 9781761097157

Ring the Bells is Colleen Keating’s eighth published book of poetry, which is quite an achievement in itself.

This is a delightful collection – often thought provoking, sometimes poignant and always engaging.

Keating understands the times in which we live. As she says in her introduction, it is: ‘a broken world with personal

and collective emotions, pain of war and human travail that can bring us to our knees’.

But gloom and desperation aren’t options for this fine lyric poet. Her title Ring the Bells comes

from the chorus of Leonard Cohen’s song, ‘Anthem’:

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in

This effectively signposts that the poems which follow will not only preference hope and positivity over cynicism and despair,

but will also elucidate her expressed notion that the ‘beauty of nature and grace of humanity is our balm’.

Ring the Bells has been cleverly curated into four sections, each a kind of bell chime: Embracing light, Embracing dark,

Embracing life and lastly, Embracing love. In all four parts, it’s easy to see Keating’s deft and often delicate lyricism at work.

Her powerful sensory imagery is derived from the intensity of her gaze upon the ordinary and the extraordinary,

which for me is beautifully captured in ‘the visit’, with its close attention to detail and the allusion to Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poem, ‘

The Windhover’.And while many of the poems in this volume reflect Keating’s enduring sense of wonder and awe

found within the natural world, there are many more that demonstrate the depth of her concern about our planet’s fragility,

as well as social inequality and injustice of all kinds  While her poetic voice is always gentle and compassionate,

her subjects range from bush fires, earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria, the plight of refugees, mass shootings in US schools,

COVID, the war in Ukraine and the injustice levelled at our first nations people –their dispossession, the deaths in custody,

the shame felt in knowing the truth of our nation’s history. Among her poems about love of family, death, loss and grief

there are meditations on everyday experience as in ‘while doing a grocery shop’.

And in ‘shared umbrella’, the simplicity and concision of the Zen-like revelation found here is clearly affecting:

so much is gained
by

a shared umbrella
with

synchronicity
of gait

besides the intimacy
of leaning in

In this and in several other poems, Keating displays not only her acute observation skills but also her fondness for minimalist Japanese forms.

That said, there are poems that show her critical eye and also underscore her willingness to experiment with form.

Especially notable is ‘intrusion’ where she satirises the relentless negativity of the news cycle in a style that reminded me of some of Bruce Dawe’s poems.

But there’s always a lightness of touch in all of Colleen Keating’s work. Especially noticed in the deeply personal, final poem ‘Celtic Knots’,

which also epitomises her overall message of the power of love. Its structure of 14 non-rhyming couplets metaphorically reinforces

the weaving together of form and function. It’s springtime in London, and Keating’s eight year old granddaughter

is teaching her to draw a Celtic Knot – that well-known symbol of eternity and interconnectedness of all things:

Our paths have crossed only four times since I helped
my daughter bring her into the world. But our bond

twines like a Celtic Knot even though our connecting
is mostly two screens quavering over FaceTime.

Aware of her own ageing, the poet’s mood becomes contemplative and downcast:

I won’t be here when the lessons coil like snakes
and she learns that beginnings become endings.

I won’t be here to remind her that endings are beginnings.

But a few lines later:

Again my daughter calls us outside to the garden to watch
two fledgling balls of feathers fluttering in the apple tree

We three stand, entwined arm in arm. Endings
seem far away.

There are many such little aperçus like this one throughout this wonderful suite of poems,

which made reading Ring the Bells such a delight for me. And I know I shall be dipping into its pages again and again.

About the reviewer: Roslyn McFarland is a fiction writer, poet and essayist, living in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney,

on the traditional lands of the Darug and Gandangara peoples. Having spent a great deal of her time in France and as a lover of the arts,

she was naturally drawn to the colourful life of the Australian WWII artist, Stella Bowen. The result is Foreign Attachments,

her second novel, published late 2024. Her first novel, All the Lives We’ve Lived was also published by Ginninderra Press in 2019.

While her novella, The Privacy of Art, was a Bronze Medal Winner in 2016 Global ebook Awards.

Roslyn has an MA in Creative Writing from UTS, and her poems, short stories, essays and reviews have appeared

in various print and online platforms. She is currently working on a suite of short stories. https://www.roslynmcfarland.com

 

Ros Spencer Poetry Prize . Second place in Poetry Competition by Colleen Keating

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First Prize

Rosa Christian On-Blue Horses

Second Prize

Collern Keating Last Way (Monument to Fallen Jewish People in Minsk, Belarus)

Highly Commended

John Beeson A Rime Winter’s Eve
Tim Loveday How to re-write a love poem

Commended

Kim Kenyon Things that are alived
David Terelinck How to become a Ghost

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ROS SPENCER POETRY PRIZE 2025 JUDGE’S REPORT

Thanks to WAPI for the invitation to judge this year’s Ros Spencer Prize – it is an honour and privilege to be asked to take on this role. 2025 saw more than 570 entries which is a testament to the strength of poetry writing in Australia and also to the prestige of this competition. The topics of the entries ranged from childhood memories, nature, war, philosophy, relationship issues and writing itself. The majority of poems were written in free form, but herein lies a danger – free form does not mean free of form. Rather, it requires the poet to create a new form or structure, both to allow the reader an invitation to read as well as to require judicious editing. A further issue with some of the poems is when dealing with topics such as the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, the writing needs to remain real and proximous, rather than a re-telling of footage seen on TV or social media. And the final issue with some entries is that poetry is not ‘cut-up’ prose. Rather, it is a more subtle use of language where imagery, rhythm and line/stanza breaks play as much importance as plot. Those poems that made up my final 20 and then 6 evoked a palpable sense of voice which lifted from page into ear.

Choosing the winning poems from such a vast field was a very difficult task resulting in numerous changes of mind as to the order.

Thanks to all of the poets who submitted work and congratulations to the winning writers. And many thanks to the Spencer family for their continued support of Australian poetry.

Prize-Winning Poems:

First Prize, “On–Blue Horses” by Rosa Christian

A poem that focusses upon the reading of another is a brave choice of subject matter, but in this case works beautifully. The writing is engaging and evocative, with the consistent use of questions a key part. Diction and imagery are handled extremely well, such as in these three lines: “Did she scribble her thoughts/ in an unconscious, eclamptic fit/ intellectual muscles twitching and spasming”, and the occasional breaking of the ‘fourth wall’ such as “(I imagine her using a fountain pen/ that elegant maker of words)”. The closure is succinct but continues the flow of ponder. An insightful and wonderful tribute to the writing of Mary Oliver and worthy winner.

Second Prize, Last Way (Monument to Fallen Jewish People In Minsk, Belarus) by Collen Keating

One of the few sestinas entered and the form works extremely well to invite focus on the subject matter. The end-words chosen create enough opportunities for wrap-around and finishing lines, and the diction is very evocative. Lines such as “moving//like a tethered camel train” and “numbingly real and its black/sky zithers with light” create a rich literary landscape, The fraught subject matter is deftly handled resulting in a succinct yet very powerful poem of considerable emotional depth.

Highly Commended Poems:

1 “A Rime Winter’s Eve” by John Beeson

Such brilliant diction usage in this poem, the glossary footnote reading like a poem itself. Rare to see a poem employing strict rhyme and stanza strictures, but these work beautifully to enhance the ‘olde world’ feeling. A true ballad which could quite easily become the text for a folk song. The flow of the unfolding tale is beguiling with the closure deftly handled. A real classic of storytelling woven into poetry.

2. “How to rewrite a love poem” by Tim Loveday

Very inventive use of stanzas that flit back and forth in time. To write a poem about writing a poem is a dangerous premise, but this works in a most engaging manner. The details contained within truly lift this poem’s readability, such as “Before the possum approaches & the hallway where we should have kissed” and “The length of our intimacy is not the life of a battery”. Quirky and very memorable.

Commended Poems: 

1.“things that are alived” by Kim Kenyon 

A poem with very strong diction and turns of phrase, such as an “indignation of crickets”, “fits into her limbs” and “Skin our noses/ on the mumble of mushrooms, gloaming of boulders, crackle of wing/ across light.” The form used in lines cascading inwards very much adds to the flow. An emotionally engaging discourse as to time spent between a mother and daughter.

2. “How to Become a Ghost” by David Terelinck

This poem uses a very proximous voice which reads in the manner of an instruction booklet. The stanza breaks and single lines are deployed in an insightful way, enhancing both flow and lines of importance. Use of diction is always inventive and line such as “light is crucial to death//the way it anoints the skull/potent momento mori/ to the ephemerality of//the world” give rise to a mantra-like feel. The final lines “just lead white skies/ silverpoint tracers/ and the pearlescent tears//of those who linger” are both profound and poignant.

Kevin Gillam

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First Prize

On-Blue Horses 

On re-reading Mary Oliver (American poet: died 2019)
this one throttled my heart until I nearly fainted.

I wonder … did she labour painfully
through the birth of her words
as I do?

Did she scribble her thoughts
in an unconscious, eclamptic fit
intellectual muscles twitching and spasming
as each contraction pushed
the infant poem into the glaring light
of public scrutiny.

Or, was her labour of another kind?
Did she mine in the heat of the moment
breathing hard, a Lamaze technique
of digging deep, searching for
lexiconic progeny in the placental
kimberlite pipes of the subconscious
to wrest from contemplative adits
rare gems of understanding
polishing and editing them
into shining diamonds
before presenting them to the world?

Did she grunt and gasp
as she delved for nuggets in
the hard ground of experience?
Did she sift gold from garbage
wash away the vernix
of the everyday dirt and grime
the worries, preoccupations, expectations?
Smelt and shape it

into its own inspired creation
that will last untarnished forever?

Or, did her issue
in an amniotic stream sublime
slide with ease from the uterine aether
pouring through Stebbin’s Gultch
‘…dashing… against the rocks, or pausing’
pass through her open heart
through her beautiful mind
out the pudendum
of her fountain pen?
(I imagine her using a fountain pen
that elegant maker of words)

Did her infant poem arrive fully formed?
limbs, digits, syntax in tact
spilling into the world
emotion, nuance, subtlety
to grow and proliferate then
sow its own inspirational seed
in fertile endometrial mind-fields
awaiting the ideal moment
to explode
into words of life?

‘…one of those gorgeous things’
a poem doing it perfectly.

Who knew that Blue Horses could say so much without speaking.

Rosa Christian

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Second Prize

Last Way
(Monument to Fallen Jewish People in Minsk, Belarus)

They grapple for footholds down the side of a pit
men, women, children, all huddled, un-named
in this bronze sculpture, patinaed ash-black;
emaciated, yet holding heads high, moving
like a tethered camel train, bare feet on the ground.
The last figure holds a one-string violin and plays

the thrum of a beat, a heart twang  – plays
a-pace for this staggering last way into the pit.
The first, arms crossed, eyes beyond the gaping ground
defiant in his death walk with this group un-named.
Each a shadow, twisted, each human silhouette moving
flesh pressed into flesh, last human touch. The black

wings of death, numbingly real and its black
sky zithers with light, as the secret note plays.
No fight, no anger but a procession, moving
closer to their end at the nadir of the pit.
Here sins of humanity rage un-named.
These twenty-seven will die on bone-scattered ground

a token for rivers of humanity caught on any ground.
One face tucked away into the body of another, black
fears are shunned as arms wrap little ones un-named.
The violin note quivers, like a breeze at dawn plays.
They falter on the eighteen stone steps to the pit.
Today each viewing, each angle of sight  a moving

reminder of the slide into evil. This is the point moving
the artist, who created it for this blooded ground
where in darkness of ignorance, humans are killed pit
–iful and alone. The sight that stands out in this black
mass is the slender intimacy of their necks. This plays
with thoughts of love, tender kisses, and being named.

Even in death a grace is found. Here it is named
in figures, taller than life, protecting each other, moving
with postures of terror, to a psalm the violinist plays.
Most look towards the sky, a few to the ground.
A wasted figure is carried, and a shadow, black
as a bird in flight, flickers. The canticle for a  death-pit

– a one-string lament the violinist plays. This is holy ground.
Even un-named, the scene is moving.
Dark fades, as black at dawn, yielding light to the pit.

Colleen Keating

 

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SWW’s Final Centenary Committee Meeting: a celebration. by Colleen Keating

colleen General , , , , , , , , ,

Our final Centenary committee meeting was held last Thursday. We met in  The Library Bar atop the State Library of NSW .
It was a mild lovely Spring evening.
Maria McDougall, Amanda Mark, Jan Conway, Kylie Day, Colleen Keating, Anne Power and Elizabeth James.
Not a  meeting  to plan and work but one of celebration and joyful thanks for  a very enthusiastic year and an amazing Centenary lunch.
So many activities held to mirror 100 years of Women writing with the motto Giving Women a Voice.
Our song given to the Society by Libby Hathorn  WE ARE  100  YEARS STRONG.
To celebrate a year of great activity and continue what Libby H calls  a century of literary, advocacy, creativity, and community
We revisited some  Sydney women writers : our society being present at the Open Day in the gorgeous home of the author Ethel Turner,
walking the Playing Beatie Bow historic way in the Rocks area where Ruth Park wrote to portray life and struggles of early Sydney .
A Great Gatsby Evening was celebrated where many dressed in character. I will include a write up of our Centenary luncheon soon
which we held at NSW Parliament House  and attracted an affirming speech by the Premier Chris Minns in the middle of his very busy day.
And the food was delicious. We took some photos to remember our final meeting . I thought the view of the harbour,
in the distance was the best way to go, but Libby’s idea  of having the buildings in the background I now think gives our meeting
a wonderful sense of place. It portrays the heart of the city, and us on the roof of our State Library in the new bar  called  appropriately
THE LIBRARY BAR in the middle of our wonderful city. Thankyou to our convenor Maria McDougall who  generously organised
our evening celebration with  hors d’oeuvres platters and bubbly the perfect way to celebrate.

 

 

pastedGraphic.png               CENTENARY REPORT September/October 2025

                                               *100th Birthday Lunch in the Strangers Dining Room, Parliament House, 

    Sydney 10 September 2025

*Soprano, Camilla Wright and accompanist, Ruth McColl performed the National Anthem and Centenary Song. Both organised by Lanneke Jones who was unable to attend the day. Camilla’s beautiful voice carried through to the adjacent dining room outside the Strangers, where upon hearing the National Anthem, diners stood to listen and remained standing during the Centenary Song. Goosebump moments. 

*Playing alongside the dining area, Vanessa Proctor’s Lavanda Players performed a program ranging from Singing in the Rain to the tango from Scent of a Woman as guests arrived and later during the afternoon whenever time allowed. Huge contribution to the day’s success establishing a joyful and respectful mood.

*Unable to attend, Susan Steggall recorded a brief overview of the Centenary Anthology for the birthday lunch, congratulating the entrants and launching the anthology. Once launched the bagged books were distributed to the recipients by committee members on the various table groups. Sales of the anthology continued at the end of the day. 

*Following the lunch, anthologies were sent to all who indicated their addresses following the Trybooking postal cost message in enews.  Sue Steggall followed up the remaining list with emails and the Trybooking link. All anthologies ordered have been posted. Anthologies to remain available for collection or purchase. See the Anthology Reminder list attached. 

*As long-term member, Guest Speaker Libby Hathorn spoke about her reflections on SWW, the early days and her membership’s impact on her career, and eventual leading to the production of the animation and recording the centenary song. 

*NSW Premier Chris Minns spoke about the importance of women’s writing. He looked up in surprise when his words about Miles Franklin raised a laugh. SWW committee photo organised by his Staff. Thank you sent to Office.  

*Around 12:40, the Hon Jodie Harrison, Minister for Women, Minister for Seniors, Minister for the Prevention of Sexual Assault, accompanied by one of her staff enjoyed lunch for about an hour. Minister Harrison spoke about SWW 100th birthday for 10 mins. Thank you sent to Office.  

* Hilarie Lindsay Writing Competition was announced. Andrew Lindsay spoke about Hilarie’s passion for women and social justice and read one of her poems. The media release for Hilarie Lindsay Prize writing competition was distributed and on the website on 23 October in preparation for the competition opening 30 October, closing 27 February 2026. Prize giving is after June, in the SL NSW as part of their bi centennial. Request sent to Richard Neville for the possibility of being part of the bicentennial celebrations. 

*General comments about the alternate choices of beef fillet or ocean trout fillet were favourable as were the remarks about the wines served. Reflections on the venue included appreciation in being in the room’s convivial atmosphere as opposed to the rain and wind outside. 

*Birthday Cake was enjoyed by all as chocolate cake dessert. Cake cutting by Di Yerbury, Liz Newton and Pippa Kay. Icing in clever titles of women’s publications covered the cake in the shape of a row of books.

*The centenary logo gold lapel pin was attached to the presentation folder.  Included was a card, either the photo image of the waratah or book stack, and a poem card with Libby Hathorn’s centenary song lyrics on one side and Hilarie Lindsay’s poem on the reverse.  

*A collection of SWW reflections by past presidents and long-term members were put on the website for general viewing.

*Centenary Bumper Issue of Women’s Ink! sent to members in July. Centenary edition, open to members’ contributions. November Women’s Ink! has follow up highlights of the centenary year with a report on the lunch.  

Despite the rain, the day was a fitting tribute to all the women writers upon whose shoulders the Society stands. Pleasing to see were the 124 attendees many from interstate and regional areas. Patron, Di Yerbury attended with an assistant. Bhavna Khanna accompanied former SWWV President, Caroline Webber travelling from Victoria.  Members can look forward to the next 100 years with excitement and anticipation following the work of the Society and its expanded opportunities for their writing. Women’s words matter. 

With appreciation for the unfailing support of Presidents Liz Newton and Pippa Kay, and huge contribution by past presidents Sue Steggall, Gwen Bitti and Jan Conway with Libby Hathorn, Kylie Day, Amanda Mark, Anne Power, Elizabeth Hunter, Colleen Keating. All fabulous women. 

Centenary support from members and all committees involved over the last 5 years is appreciated. So many donations and sponsorships, fundraising hampers, and silent auction prizes along with the hosting of morning tea and wine dinner parties were invaluable.  Friendships were established and memories created. A special mention for the SWW current committee for their help and endorsement for the centenary lunch, namely Liz Newton, Pippa Kay, Christine Sykes, Amanda Mark, Anne Power, Jane Carrick, Julie Thorndyke, Rita Shaw, Teresa Petersen, Liz Shaw and Maria McDougall.  

When women are together, wonderful things happen. 

Wild Whispers Vol 1, Issue 2 by Colleen Keating

colleen Poetry , , ,

Wild Whispers

I am very excited to be published in the latest edition of Wild Whispers.

Vol 1 Issue 2.

Thank you to Tim Parkin, editor for Wild Whispers for his dedication to poetry.

Wild Whispers Vol 1, Issue 2  October 2025

delusions of grandeur

the ibis, tagged D44, rummages for crumbs
under our table, then walks off
with head high, with a sense self importance
thinking it’s in a place that calls it sacred

COLLEEN KEATING 

__________________________________________________________________

Your Poem Has Been Selected!

Hi Colleen,

Thank you so much for your recent submission! We’re delighted to let you know that your

following poem has been selected for Wild Whispers Poetry Magazine – Volume 1, Issue 2,

which will be published online in late October in our format.

delusions of grandeur

the ibis, tagged D44, rummages for crumbs

under our table, then walks off

with head high, with a sense self importance

thinking it’s in a place that calls it sacred

COLLEEN KEATING

We’re truly grateful to everyone who contributed to this issue – thank you for being part of it.

Warmest wishes,
The Wild Whispers Team

https://www.wildwhisperspoetrymagazine.com/

Selector: Tim Parkin
​
(Wild Whispers Poetry Magazine Issue 1, Volume 2 
In honour of  Lyn Marie  11th April, 2025.
Please pray for her soul and for the souls of women killed in family violence situations.)

____________________________________________________________________

Excited for Pip Griffin  to have her gorgeous haiku published in the first magazine earlier in the year.

Wild Whispers    Issue 1:1 April, 2025

eucalyptus trunks
shed ochre epistles
in the botanic gardens

Pip Griffin

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Some of my other 5  liner poems
shared umbrella   free verse     18 words
so much is gained
by a shared umbrella
with  synchronicity of gait
besides the intimacy
of leaning in
Colleen Keating Sydney, Australia
delusions of grandeur      free verse      28 words
the ibis, tagged D44, rummages for crumbs
under our table, then walks off
with head high, with a sense self importance
thinking it’s in a place that calls it sacred
Colleen Keating Sydney, Australia
mango               free verse    22 words
is a warm, yellow heart
with fragrance of a summer’s day
its smooth curved skin holding in
juicy flesh , bursting
with sunshine.
Colleen Keating Sydney, Australia
after William Carlos  Williams    free verse  16 words
so much depends upon
buttermilk  weed
the yellow monarch alights
in the sun-drenched field
Colleen Keating, Sydney , Australia
tanka
a lone seagull
on a busy city street
far from the harbour
sometimes I wish I had wings
to find my way home
Colleen Keating Sydney, Australia
tanka 
an empty sky
where the blue gum stood –
returning birds
perch on a brick wall
chirping incessantly
Colleen Keating Sydney. Australia
Colleen Keating is an award-winning Sydney, Australian poet.
Her poetry is published in journals and she has seven books of poetry.
She is the winner of the Phillipa Holland Poetry prize 2024.
 and Runner-up in the 2025 Ros Spencer WA Poetry Award.