Poets at Rhodo Festival, Blackheath

POETRY AT BLACKHEATH SAT 1 NOVEMBER

I’ll be performing at the Poets’ Breakfast this Saturday with my poetic comrades, at the Rhododendron Festival, Blackheath. What time, I hear you ask?  9 a.m. Where, you wish to know? at the Ivanhoe Hotel, on the corner of the Great Western Highway and Govett's Leap road. I have been known to get up at the Folk Club there, a once a month event which encourages poets. We’ll all give you of our best. I’ve written a new poem ("RSVP Makita Man") for the occasion. 

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Latest haiku:

smoke billowing

from the north - 

still in my pyjamas

Spring Yatra

regrowth after October fires - Sun Valley

What do you need to help you simplify the field of your attention? to slow down the pace of your thoughts? to calm the choppy seas of emotion? A walk specifically shaped to silence, in a beautiful peaceful spot. Trees? maybe frogs – maybe a creek  - maybe even sulphur-crested cockatoos occasionally? To walk as though your feet are caressing the earth with each step – Thich Nhat Hanh suggests you think of walking meditation like this.

Why are they called bluegums?

And what are they shouting on top of the ridge? Playing which sports there?

 

In the sheoaks a bird is singing like Dame Joan.

Suddenly everything becomes a bit delightful and you’re not really sure why because it’s exactly the same as when you passed it before,  said Beth afterwards.

A life fully lived is one in which we fully inhabit the present. We were training ourselves to do this, with each step along the fire trail and especially, stepping barefoot into damp sand with our sensitive whitefella feet!

‘Emily 13’

on the bluegum bark

that will soon peel off