Ginninderra Press sends us exciting mail

 

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How exciting, double exciting,  to receive two emails one after the other, from the award winning publisher Stephen Matthews OAM  at Ginninderra Press regarding our poem entries for  Ginninderra Press’ new anthology Milestones. 

Michael and I are both  thrilled to have our poems:  

cherishing the moments by Colleen Keating

Reset by Michael Keating 

selected for inclusion.

Hello Michael,

Thank you for submitting a poem for inclusion in our 25th-anniversary anthology Milestones. I’m delighted to inform you that your poem has been selected for inclusion in the book. In due course, you will receive a proof to check before publication. Covid permitting, we hope to launch the book later this year.

Regards,

Stephen

Hello Colleen,

Thank you for submitting a poem for inclusion in our 25th-anniversary anthology Milestones. I’m delighted to inform you that your poem has been selected for inclusion in the book. In due course, you will receive a proof to check before publication. Covid permitting, we hope to launch the book later this year.

Regards,

Stephen

(Stephen Matthews  and yours truly at the launch of Mountain Secrets)

 

Just reflecting . . .

I have been priveleged to have a poem in each of these past Anthologies :

Michael after reading a poem at the Writers Festival in May 2018 at Varuna Writing Centre Katoomba

in the autumnal beauty of the Blue Mountains NSW

Story behind the poem The Gully, published in Mountain Secrets

Story behind the poem The Gully,  published in Mountain Secrets

 

 

The Gully  

the creek chatters with small rocks
as it slithers along    decanted
from a swamp    succulent
as ten thousand soaking sponges
fringed with ferns   lichens   mosses
sedges   with silver dew

the rustle of a lyre bird
singing the land back to healing
mimics a birdsong-world
and conceals a secret
a mountain secret  

there was a time in The Gully
when the lyrebird was silent
and the wind mimicked a deep howl
and the earth grieved and raged
for its evicted people
its ravaged concreted land 

today the lyre bird’s song rolls back
a many layered history
the Gundungurra and Darug people
lead us out of a amnesic fog
with a remember story –
               a redemptive pathway into now

by Colleen Keating

*The Gully, An Aboriginal Place in Katoomba. In the 50’s made into the Catalina Race track.

 

 

My poem The Gully is written on the history of an area in Katoomba which was a meeting ground for three Aborigine tribes before colonisation and after Warragamba Dam was build when their movement  was blocked many settled there on what was then the outskirts of the Katoomba town .  A Fun park was developed, a lake even a Catalina Plane was floated on the lake there and people were moved off from their homes  for a Race track which was built disturbing the head water of the Katoomba Fall that feeds the Jamison Valley . 

Now fortunately it has been returned to the and is very sacred to walk around and see and read  the history including remains of the track and where signs like Capstan Bend once hang.

The story is documented in a book called 

Sacred  Waters

 The story of the Blue Mountains Gully Aboriginal People 

        by 

Dianne Johnson 

 

‘Mountain Secrets’ A new Anthology published by Ginninderra Press

I am very honoured to be included in the new Anthology called ‘Mountain Secrets’  published  by Ginninderra Press  and I proudly read my poem ‘ The Gully’  at the launch.

Last weekend the Ginninderra Press family gathered at Blackheath amidst the pandemonium of the Rhododendron Festival  to launch their new book ‘ Mountain Secrets ‘  Thank you to the editor Joan Fenney for a a polished production.  It was a full and very rewarding day  and a great opportunity to put faces to names of poets that we only know through their writing, especially the many from interstate, South Australia, Canberra and Victoria.

After lunch we had a panel discussion on the Sense of Place in our writing and I had been asked to be on the panel. It was an honour being on the panel with two distinguished writers, my friend  Libby Sommer and poet John Watson.  I will post my reflection on my blog later today.

We then enjoyed afternoon tea and a birthday cake to celebrate Brenda Eldridge’s 70th birthday.

Next we had the pleasure of the launch of “Stories from Bondi Beach’ by Libby Sommer  launched expertly by Susanne Gervay. Congratulations to Libby. 

Thank you to Stephen Matthews and Brenda Eldridge/ Matthews, for bringing us together under the Ginninderra Press.