When the noted poet John Egan asked me to collaborate with him on a chap book with the idea of presenting it to be published with Picaro Poets (an arm of Ginninderra Press) I was very affirmed and excited. It quickly became a challenge for our poems needed to have a thread of interconnectedness and for me I always want a book that someone in the future can pick up and read and find meaning and hopefully a spark of something I like to call ‘the more than”
We teamed up with Brenda Eldridge that I always find is on my wave length of wanting poetry that says the ‘the more than’ and Landscapes of the Heart was born. Brenda did a perfect typeset and production. Many of our poems had been previously published in poetry journals and magazines and it was affirming to have them collected in this book. John suggested we use the quote of Henri-Frederic Amiel,
‘Any landscape is a condition of the spirit’
I have a sense our poetry is an antidote for today with Covid lurking in our midst , causing havoc with our lives and livelihoods.
What is earth asking of us today ?
I know for me, the poem I will share called delphic visitor on page 15 is with me today . I am in self-isolation along way from the Manning River and the kikuyu grass covered in dew and the herons that come each morning but here at this desk I carry that scene and that heron deep inside my chest to protect me from the forgetting the beauty of our world and to protect me from being sentimental about life. The delicate exquistite heron that looks more like a shy ballerina who could be stepping out to Camille Saint-Saens The swan must kill ruthlessly and feed every day to stay alive. There is something about the Covid virus today that says the earth is struggling . . there is a message we have to listen and listen. . .
delphic visitor
clear winter morning
a silver heron tiptoes
through a tangle
of wild kikuyu grass
stalks
waits statue-still
pounces
strike of pick-ax blade
throws
its rippling neck back
in an alleluia pose
I venture into the paddock
to capture a photo
my jeans trail over dew laden grass
and this silver heron
my morning oracle
with quiver of white breast
soft flutter of blue-grey wing
cranks its bamboo legs
uncurls its gold-tip feet
lifts
tacks into flight
loose grey silk
against a blue sky
by Colleen Keating
A quote from John’s poem Sunrise over the Sea
. . Mesabi Range iron-ore red,
rotating mardi gras, the sea and sky
and carosels of rays,
an orange wheel of fortune
where the Sun King rides
his new Versailles of light. . .
Hallelujah Chorus chimes,
a sea of stars declines
and curtain clls,
the sun’s the star,
strides on stage
to wild applause.
to read more you need to go onto Ginninderra Press, Picaro Poets web site and scroll down to buy the book.