Christmas ’24, a reflection

At the Hove Post Office the queue

almost met the café

where a choir of angels

sipped bowls of extreme chilli pho.

Last year had been more spiritual

than usual, babies galore: Mabel, Lily,

Chase, and two more.

I’ve seen the error of my ways

and planted a bed of roses that were in bloom

for Sophia’s wedding.

Why I gave up on roses, I cannot think.

I’ve fallen more.

Once, into a bush of lavender

which was like falling into a scented cushion.

I’ve bought a walker. It resembled a little elephant.

It’s my pet. Night and day I keep it by my side.

You could say it is the elephant in the room.

Everything has become more precious.

Dawn (“Thank God I have woken!”)

sea and sky. Every cloud I glimpse reminds me

of dear Ian North who loved them more than most.

Yesterday I picked the first Gardenia

the scent of a baby’s breath.

It was a silver sort of day, a tall delphinium,

a blue broach pinned to a pale silk blouse.

There was Christmas; laughter, love and friends.

All of it beautiful, beautiful.

Beautiful.

Kate Llewellyn AM, leading Australian poet, author, art gallery director, diarist, travel writer and editor was born in 1936 in Tumby Bay, South Australia. In 1958 she graduated as a registered nurse from the Royal Adelaide Hospital. She began writing as a mature age student at the University of Adelaide, where she won the Bundey Prize for English Verse in 1975, and gained her BA in history and classics in 1977. In the 2024 Australia Day Honours, she was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia, AM, for “significant service to literature as an author, historian and academic”. Comprehensive bios of Kate’s personal, family, academic and literary life can be found at Austlit, Southern Cross, and various leading publisher’s sites.

Readers’ original and unpublished poems of up to 40 lines can be emailed, with postal address, to [email protected]. Submissions should be in the body of the email, not as attachments. A poetry book will be awarded to each accepted contributor.