The parakeets have eaten most of the apples and the local possum dropped in for a visit. The wildlife is a welcome distraction as I work from home.

Sorting

It has been an ideal time to go through the tedious tasks. One that I have putting off for years is going through my poems. With more than a thousand, it’s easy to become overwhelmed. I have narrowed it down to three draft volumes.

Preparation

It feels greatly like a waiting game. Getting things ready, decluttering and organising. Looking back through old projects that were intended for a rainy day. I hope you are finding a way to make the most of the current situation.

It was wonderful to see a poetry book do so well upon release. On Amazon it made number 48 in the category for Australian and Oceanian Poetry. This year will mark forty years since I met Azaria Chamberlain. It is hard to believe that an event in my life affected so many.

A personal view

For me, as with many other who were at the centre of the storm the grief was unimaginable. The certainty of what we had witnessed so absolute. Yet this grief had to be relived over and over again, in the media and behind closed doors. It ebbs and flows like an ever moving tide.

Forgiveness

If there is one universal thing, we who were there forgive. There is no malice, no ill will, what was done is part of our past. Having said this, no one speaks for me. I have my own voice and forty years later it is time. After all has been said and done. I walk a path alone, one that remains unique.

You may be wondering what this is and indeed I have been rather quiet about it. For years I wrote poems, more than a thousand. By the time I was ready to consider publishing, poetry was being dropped off the submission lists. The message that went around was that no one bought poetry. So the project was shelved.

History repeats itself

In 2019 the first real interview with my mother, Sally, was released in a podcast “A Perfect Storm: The true story of the Chamberlains” by John Buck. My parents rarely speak about when we met the Chamberlain family at Uluru on 17 August 1980. The event is too painful and reminds them that it could have been us.

Expression in the form of words

My parents have always loved my poetry. For years I thought they were being completely bias. After all, isn’t that what parents do? I sent off some poems to John Buck who said I should publish them. It’s been almost forty years since I met Azaria. There comes a time when all that grief needs be let go. The book of poems has helped my parents talk about that day.

Azaria Poems

The book contains ten photos taken by my father on 17August 1980, and fifty poems about Azaria. These describe people, events and some of the emotions that went with it. The poems are quite personal and I have thought long and hard about publishing them. It is time for forgiveness and it is time to acknowledge the grief and loss of a beautiful baby.