This began as a game some bloggers played in 2008, to write about people who'd made an impact, in the same number of words as one's age, every day for a year. I did them less often and went on longer, adding one word each birthday. I stopped in 2016 and incorporated them into my main poetry blog. In 2019 I resumed the project and gave it its own blog again, with a new name, where it may unfold at its own (slow, intermittent) pace. I've labelled these verse portraits, but they're more like quick sketches: mere glimpses, impressions....


Tuesday 6 October 2009

The Girl from Brazil

(Market Client)

I did psychic readings at Sunday markets approx. 1995 to late 2013. 


Soft, young,
excited by life.
I feel, empathic,
the suppressed fluttering
of breath wanting to surge.

A dentist in Brazil,
here she must study
again another year;
doesn’t complain, enjoys.

She longs for love.
I’m glad to see it coming
though not just yet.
First she will visit home.
'In March,' she agrees.

I see the large, warm family,
her brother’s new baby.
Smiling, she’s love
waiting to happen.




[Poem #82]

Old Colleague

'I need a new photo,' she says,
'To replace that one you took
nearly twenty years ago.'

On her website the new one
shows her whiter-haired,
still smooth-faced and lovely.

Upper Yarra Valley
Neighbourhood Centre.
Educators, enablers.

Our shared philosophies
expanded each other’s
gifts: teaching, writing.

Life moved us;
we never forgot. Now
her best friend turns up here.

Rapturous reunion
via email. We swap
news, our latest books.



[Poem #81]

Thursday 1 October 2009

Spirit Sister

'Younger than you,' the seer said.
 'Dark-haired. A Celtic cross
around her neck. She will be
important.' Years later, visiting
the Caldera, strangers
we embraced at her door.
I read her cards. 'You must
return here.'

Life paths almost identical, even
same-named healing centres
in different cities. 12 weeks
we rented her property. She returned,
we stayed close, worked magic,
wrote. Never needed any
explanations. She is
important.



[Poem #80]