Wednesday, March 27, 2013






Is this love?

the wind loose

and roses
on a path

filled with perfume

it stops me
along the lake

where we walk
in Dylan's moonlight

the night and your body
in it

the heady scratch of shadows
saturate

a lone cottage

wheels of lemon 
bob 

in our gin

and
on our tongues

Sunday, March 24, 2013


 Monday Poetry with Helen Hagemann continues at the Grove on Monday 25th March. This workshop “Writing Love Poems” will help poets towards the upcoming anthology, Australian Love Poems 2013 by Inkerman & Blunt. Poets cited: Charles Olson, Pablo Neruda, John Tranter, Chris Mansell, Eric Beach, Dorothy Porter, and more. 1.00pm start. Coffee and chat in the Grove's Coffee Shop after class. All welcome!
Venue: The Grove Library, 1 Leake Street, Cottesloe. (Cnr Napolean St) & close to Cottesloe train station.
Date: Monday 25th March
Time: 1-3.00pm
Cost: OOTA $15.00, Non-OOTA $20.00

Australian Love Poems 2013
The Perfume of Flowers
               by Charles Olson



The perfume
of flowers! A haw

drops such odour
it stops me

in the wall
of its fall. Love

arrests

Lime-trees

saturate

the night. We walk
in it

On a path jonquils
fill

the air. Love
is a scent.
 

Saturday, March 16, 2013

New Collection Soon to be Published by Sunline Press!


Grandmother & Granddaughter Poem

When my grandmother was frail,
not knowing it was cancer,
we’d sit in bed, facing each other;
two pillows at cornered walls, a toddy beside.
Gran would lift the lid of a brown suitcase, 
where apart from a silver wink in her eye,
she’d show fifty-percent of her life.
Nutmeg, cinnamon & ginger bartered in Malay stalls
at Paddy’s Markets, their spicy air arriving.
Tucked in newspaper: textiles, tablecloths, napkins,
slippers wedged together, a finery of nylon hose.
We’d go deeper & deeper, down into the suitcase,
Gran’s fingers tinkling glass buttons, pins, cotton reels.
Unpacking a day’s shopping, she’d lift my lips to sparkle
them candy-apple pink, round my cheeks with a light
touch of rouge; us mouthing ‘O’s’ like clowns in glass.
Gran just had her pills, so she prided herself with a new perm,
how her body warmed under a flannel shirt of her making.
Like those clowns we’d laugh at Gran’s bedside teeth,
coming out like stars. And she bequeathed me
more of her life. I knew she was happy, passing me
spindles of Ric-rac, ribbon, guipure lace; our hands
aglitter in bells & reindeers woven into braid.
She eased paper patterns from covers, kept material
when a bride. Citron pillow slips from her marriage bed,
now smelling of naphthalene, frayed at the edges;
her pale fingers, lucent as ice, shaking on the perfect
blue satin stitch of forget-me-nots.



This poem will be in my new collection "of Arc & Shadow" (tentatively titled). I know my poem Granddaughter & Grandmother has been popular so hopefully you will enjoy this! My grandmother was an angel, she taught me to sew, crochet, knit and also rug making. Although those skills have now lapsed, I remember her with great joy, spending time with me on the back step of our weatherboard and tin house.



I've just loaded up a few short stories you might want to take a squizz at when you have time. U--hum just loaded up my new short story called "The Donkey Orchid Man".. Just click on the graphic it will take you to my short story page. Happy reading!

Bounty

Bounty
Prose Poetry

The Five Lives of Ms Bennett

The Five Lives of Ms Bennett
A Family Saga

The Ozone Cafe

The Ozone Cafe
White Collar Crime

The Last Asbestos Town

The Last Asbestos Town
Available from Amazon

Evangelyne

Evangelyne
Published by Australian Poetry Centre, Melbourne

of Arc & Shadow

of Arc & Shadow
Published by Sunline Press, WA

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MBA (Wrtg) ECowan

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Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Helen Hagemann holds an MA in Writing from Edith Cowan University, has three poetry books: Evangelyne & Other Poems published by Australian Poetry, Melbourne (2009) and of Arc & Shadow published by Sunline Press, Perth (2013). Bounty: prose poetry is published by Oz.one Publishing in 2024. She has three novels published The Last Asbestos Town (2020), The Ozone Café (2021) and The Five Lives of Ms Bennett a result of her Masters degree at ECU (2006), is published by Oz.one Publishing (2023).

Helen Hagemann MBA (Wrtg): ECowan

Helen Hagemann MBA (Wrtg): ECowan
Author & Poet

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