Catchment – Voices. Poetry of Place 5th edition

colleen Poetry , ,

Catchment – Poetry of Place

Exciting news 5 of my tanka are going to be read on the radio. from February  2026.

Greetings, Colleen.

We are proud to have chosen the following poetry of yours for recorded readings, within our latest initiative, Tanka Tones:

 – ‘Changi’
 – ‘walking the beach’
 – ‘an empty sky’
 – ‘in Shiki’s garden’

After recording & editing, we will start making postings online on the 14th & 28th days of each month

Nine Streams of selected tanka will be released in total.

At present, we envisage commencing in February, but will advise you subsequently about specific dates.

To be presented by a team of six readers, in rotation, readings will go live in sets of four.

Previous postings will be readily available, archived immediately below – as with all releases through Catchment, access will be free, with no subscription/ fee payable.

This project follows closely in the footsteps of Catchment Voices, likewise produced through 3BBR-FM: again, a proportion of audio files from Tanka Tones will also be broadcast on local community radio, in West Gippsland, Victoria.

As members of the Catchment team, we are grateful to Paul Strickland from 3BBR for his backing, while also thanking you for your support: we hope you will feel we have done justice to your writing within Tanka Tones.

Looking forward to receiving further submissions from you in future, we wish you all the very best for the year to come!

Cheers,

 Rodney Williams
 Editor
 Catchment – Poetry of Place
Baw Baw Arts Alliance
Gunaikurnai country

Memorial for Monica author of Blotch

colleen Poetry , ,

 

Our gift

for Monica

These words are a song of celebration
not of lament 
In this room with Monica 
there is only room for joy

Swathed in colours of life 
she was Monica
her bright cheerful loving face 
a spark lighting up our world

Her tools in our years together
were words and writing books 
and determination to see them 
into the hands of children.

Bright and happy swathed 
in her white furry costume  
she was Blotch the dog
Blotch who wanted to see the world

getting smuggled onto a plane
to have an adventure 
in her beloved Chile

Her horizons were always hopeful 
for Monica the clouds were promising 
shade if it was too hot 
rain if it was too dry 
comforting when times were hard  or sad.

Monica  your unabashed enthusiasm 
was translucent
your love and pride in family 
your cheery loving phone calls and sad ones.
your welcoming arms wrapped around me
your greeting always as if for the first time

Little was I to know one of those was the last.
My symphonic friend of joy 
we had a blast  in our writing days 
Thank you for you. 

Colleen

 

The venue was stunning. Monica would ve loved it.

 

Happy Days  We had a blast 

     

 

DAY OF MOURNING   22 nd January 2026 ~~~Light will Win ~~~

colleen Poetry , , , , , , , ,

DAY OF MOURNING  Sydney  JANUARY 22 nd  2026.

 

“Et lux in tenebris lucet, et tenebrae eam non comprehenderunt.

“”The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not seized it.”  Mozart

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.”  Martin Luther King

 

“The sun never says”

— Hafez (Khājeh Shams-od-Dīn Moḥammad Ḥāfeẓ-e Shīrāzī), Persia (c.1325-1390)

Even after all this time
the sun never says to the earth,
“You owe me.”

Look what happens
with a love like that –
It lights the whole world!



Thank you to Dr.Stephanie Dowrick 
for her New Year initiative of the poetry and photography. 

Hafez Shirazi (1325–1390) was a 14th century Persian poet. Persian .

He is regarded by Iranians as one of the highest pinnacles of Persian Literature.

His works are often found in the homes of Persain speakers who learn the poems by heart

over the centuries and use them as everyday proverbs and sayings. 

 

Our candle from Darkinjung land
while on holidays.

Mitzvah is an act of kindness, compassion and a moral responsibility. 

A simple act of kindness.

Fifteen suggested Mitzvah for the 15 people lost in the Bondi attack

  1. Give to others – donate to organisations in service of others.
  2. Uplift the sick – visit someone who is unwell and offer support.
  3. Help those who have helped you – perform one small task to help your parent or older relative.
  4. Open your home – offer hospitality to someone you may not have thought to.
  5. Travel with care – help those needing transport, treat the roads and drivers with respect.
  6. Act with intent – reflect with a moment of silence to seek guidance and clarity before beginning a task.
  7. Prioritise family – spend the first hour of your evening dedicated to your family, screen-free.
  8. Gratitude first – begin your day with thanks for the good things surrounding you.
  9. Prayer for healing – say a prayer for the complete physical and spiritual recovery for the victims of the Bondi massacre.
  10. Work with integrity – give the time you committed to the tasks you committed to.
  11. Pay it forward – When someone wants to repay you for an act of kindness, encourage them to ‘pay it forward’ to a stranger instead.
  12. Cherish your partner and friend – remind those you love every day how grateful you are for all they do for you.
  13. Kindness without expecting anything in return – Quietly perform an act of kindness to brighten someone else’s day.
  14. Teach children – read children stories that show them all the good in the world.
  15. Legacy of life – empower the next generation to carry forward not with loss but with hope.

 

 

 

Welcome 2026 It is our year to live by Colleen Keating

colleen Poetry , ,

Welcome .  It is our year . We live it . We breathe  it. We think  it. We respond. to it  . We act  in it.

A new dawn , a new day, a new year and a new beginning.

From an Old Master   –   Repeat every morning again and again and the way your body responds, feels and lives will begin to change.

This is going to be the best day of my life.  (Not because it will be perfect but because I will turn up fully present and willing

to learn from what even the day begins)

I control my mind – it does not control me. (I do not control what will happen but I control how I respond  and I choose to respond with joy and love to whatever happens )

I am grateful for what I have right now.  (even if it is something small, even if the day is not perfect)

Repeat every morning again and again and the way your body responds, feels and lives will begin to change.

 

A Celtic Tradition from Anam Cara An idea to live by. Colleen Keating

colleen General, Poetry ,
“There is a lovely idea in the Celtic tradition that if you send out goodness from yourself, or if you share
that which is happy or good within you, it will all come back to you multiplied ten thousand times.
In the kingdom of love there is no competition, there is no possessiveness or control.
The more love you give away, the more love you will have.” 💚
-Anam Cara
John O’Donohue died #otd 4 January 2008

Holding the light in the dark by Colleen Keating

colleen Poetry , , ,

Holding the light in the dark,  Sending love and peace  to all .

The candle I lit with hope for our people and our country is my Hildegard candle

made by the Benedictine Sisters in the Abbey in Bingen, Germany.

Holding all the families that are grieving with the tragic loss  of their loved ones on the 14th December.

And the Light shall overcome . . .

     

The Guest House

by Rumi

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

Copyright 1997 by Coleman Barks. Posted with permission. All rights reserved.

From The Illuminated Rumi.

White Pebbles Haiku Group Summer meeting 2025 by Samantha Sirimanne Hyde

colleen Poetry , , , , ,

13th December 2025

On the last meeting for the year, the White Pebbles Haiku Group gathered as usual at the Gosford/Edogawa Commemorative Garden on a vibrant summer morning. In its eighth year, Beverley George (founder and convener) was joined by all the group’s members: Colleen Keating, Gwen Bitti, Kent Robinson, Maire Glacken, Marilyn Humbert, Michael Thorley, Pip Griffin and Samantha Sirimanne Hyde.

Before starting our ginko, we enjoyed our customary catch up with each other’s news over a beverage at the Art Centre’s café.

From left: Michael Thorley, Colleen Keating, Kent Robinson, Samantha Sirimanne Hyde, Marilyn Humbert, Gwen Bitti, Pip Griffin, Beverley George, Maire Glacken
 
(Thanks to Debbie Robinson for taking our photograph).

Ambling down rambling paths, we followed whichever sights, sounds and scents took our fancy – musing about the plentiful dwarf gardenias, the koi pond, the impressive bamboo grove and spider silk making connections leaf to leaf. The garden buzzed with activity and “aha” moments, such as a brace of ducks seemingly squabbling over nothing and a crawling infant on a sun patch engaging with baby ducks.

Later, we gathered around the table in the gallery’s downstairs meeting room to share recently published haiku as well as poems about wildlife.

Members were encouraged to speak about any new publications they may have accomplished. Colleen spoke about her Ring the Bells – her eighth published book of poetry. A truly impressive achievement to be lauded at its launch next year.  

Beverley and Kent spoke of their new poetry publication, Interwoven– an intriguing book of collaborative poetry. Kent chatted about how his love of the various categories of Japanese-influenced linked forms started and how travel to Japan with Beverley and her expert guidance fuelled his interest. We look forward to savouring this collection.

We had the benefit of Marilyn’s mini workshop about “makoto” – the Japanese concept of sincerity in haiku poetics. She acknowledged and reaffirmed inspiring observations made by author and editor, Robert Epstein in a recent paper on this subject. She emphasised the need for the poet to be authentically engaged with nature, to write in simple language and without artifice. A beautiful reminder for us to approach haiku with an open-heart. We thank Marilyn for her insightful workshop.

After lunch, we wrapped up, exchanging season’s greetings and wishing each other well until the next meeting in autumn.

Samantha Sirimanne Hyde

 

   

White Pebbles Garden and Pip pondering on haiku in the shade of the Wistaria.

Eucalypt: a tanka journal Issue 39 2025 ed Julia Thorndyke

colleen Poetry , , , , ,

 

 I am thrilled to have a one of my new tanka  included in the latest edition of Eucalypt: A Tanka Journal.  Issue 39 2025 ( a Japanese form of poetry which calls  for a succinct 5 lines.)  Thank you to Julie Thorndyke for her dedication in producing a tanka journal twice a year that always comes as a very thoughtfully and creative produced work.  And a special thanks to Pim Sarti for her illustration to partner  my tanka

Congratulation to all the poets included. I feel very honoured to be included. 

Notre Dame spires

purple in the gloaming

beckon

one more trip I say

in these twilight days 

 

Colleen Keating 

 

 

Baw Baw Arts Alliance Catchment Edition 5 by Colleen Keating

colleen Poetry , , , , , ,

 

Catchment Poetry of Place

I am thrilled to have three of my poems and  two recent tanka included in the latest edition of the Catchment  Poetry of Place Journal.  

Thank you to Rodney Williams for his  dedication to bring this latest edition of Catchment to the world.

Congratulations to all the included poets . It is an honour to be published amongst them

https://www.bawbawartsalliance.org.au/catchment2/

Dear Colleen Keating

Thanks yet again for your support of Catchment – Poetry of Place: it is greatly appreciated.

You will find that Edition 5 has gone live online, through the Baw Baw Arts Alliance website, viewable through Latest Edition, at this link:

https://www.bawbawartsalliance.org.au/catchment2/

Looking forward to receiving further contributions from you in future, we hope that you will enjoy reading our fifth edition,

please feel free to share Catchment with others!

 

Hidden Life

Above me on the Bobbin Head track
a monolith of uplifted sandstone 
looms. All the tones of amber, buff and beige.
A cavernous rock of Michelangelo gravitas. 
Wind-chiselled, sand carved. Even as I watch
grains of quartz scrape and grate.
Shapes are breaking out. 

It took me to Florence 
a corridor of unfinished sculptures
The Prisoners, stone carved by Michelangelo 
on his quest for the marbled sculpture  ‘David.’   
It is said he worked from inside, believing 
the stone knows.

Below the cliffs, the ripple of waves
fold and unfold. Tides underscore. 
Water finds grooves. Wind sandpapers. 
They wear down lines shaping, carving  
into the grain. Craftsmanship on show.
Shapes are breaking out.     

by Colleen Keating    

   

 

 

Litchfield National Park

whistling kites
firebirds of the sky

hang
on up-drafts of air

eyeing prey
in the blackened patchwork of burn off

we wander
through hundreds of termites mounds

their north-south stance
a graveyard of magnetic headstones

tread lightly
this land a remnant of Gondwanaland*
is a library of books still to be written

* Name given to an ancient 
supercontinent. 

by Colleen Keating

 

 

At Matsuyama

silently one after another 
haiku poets  with shoes off
stand at Shiki’s door 
gaze in at an old style room

tatami mats    cushion 
low desk with dry ink well   brush
tattered papers 
Shiki’s writnig corner

in his garden
we tread a stone-paved way
read his haiku carved on stones
and  wait for inspiration.

by Colleen Keating

 

Tanka

Changi
the airport friendly and safe
how different
this word from our history books
of suffering and bloodshed

beach lookout –
a springtime visitor
rolls and flaps about
silver glints on its flippers
keep us fixed in awe

and later he suns on the groin

by Colleen Keating

White Pebbles Summer Ginko at Edogawa Garden , East Gosford

colleen Poetry , , , ,

White Pebbles Haiku group met for our summer ginko at the Edogawa  Japanese Garden in East Gosford. 

it is always  exciting to catch up for our seasonal meeting in March, July. September and December to celebrate

the beginning of each new season  and take a short time to listen and write and share .

At our Summer  gathering we enjoyed sharing our published work and affirming each other. One of our members

Marilyn Humbert gave us a mini workshop on the subject of ‘makoto’  the Japanese concept of sincerity

which we should aspire to when writing haiku’  Thank yu to our convenor Beverley George.

       

 

    

Pip writing haiku in the Wistaria shade     Front row:  Michael, Colleen Sam, Gwen,Bev, Maire

Back row:  Kent, Marilyn, Pip

 

a summer’s day~
two red dragonflies alight
on white pebbles

full summer sun
ducks lie in the shade
of stone lanterns

summer ginko
we linger in the shade
of the wisteria

garden cafe
a mother duck hustles
her chick out

humid air ~
scent of gardenias drifts
over sleeping ducks