All it takes
a poem for you after a morning swim
When I wake to remembered dreams
I keep one foot in that world
as I wander through
the loud bright other one;
those are always better days
when I am half-way through a
nightstory and the day is just
a clarification of what things mean.
Some days the world is a mountain in my chest
and I am crippled to take a harmless step.
In the valley, the shadow of death
pours down like the flood resent
to flush out our vacancies
where soulfulness once held.
Then, the strange murmurings
in my sleeping ear
hover like prophecy
and when I lift my eyes to the clouds
crying help across the waves
give us a different story
from this drowning dance
sometimes, if I am soft and just-awake enough
there is a rainbow to the west
dolphins to the east.
You can be shaken clean, friends
feel God returned to you like
a freshly laundered garment;
enough to make you want
to swim back to shore.
With love,
NEWSY STUFF
Yesterday I spent the morning signing a few hundred copies of my new book Bring Us Home from Sorrow at Gertrude and Alice. Copies are available WORLDWIDE through this wonderful bookstore - probably the only way you can get it outside of Australia as I’ve had no luck finding a home for it elsewhere. If you don’t mind the cost of postage, you can order your copy here and I will personalize each purchase:
https://www.gertrudeandalice.com.au/.../bring-us-home.../
Thank you to the 14 people who have already bought their copies (I know who you are).
There might be a few spots left for the Sydney launch on 8 March, International Women’s Day where there will be some glorious surprises on the evening if you choose to join me. Please note the venue is 163 Clovelly Road, Clovelly, not Gertrude and Alice bookstore.






I hope the book launch is a huge success Joanne- very much looking forward to reading Bringing us Home From Sorrow. 🌹
Yet again your poetry finds water leaking from my eyes. Thank you