Kate Llewellyn

Kate Llewellyn is the author of twenty-four books comprising eight of poetry, five of travel, journals, memoirs, letters and essays. She is the co-editor of The Penguin Book of Australian Women Poets and is the author of the bestseller The Waterlily: A Blue Mountains Journal. Her most recent books are A Fig at the Gate, a book of nature writing and poems, published by Allen & Unwin, and First Things First, a book of her letters edited by Dr Ruth Bacchus and Dr Barbara Hill, published by Wakefield Press.

States of Poetry 2016 - South Australia | 'The Dressmaker’s Daughter' by Kate Llewellyn

States of Poetry South Australia - Series One • 22 February 2016

I was the dressmaker's daughterour dialogue was fabric, colour,embroidery, pins and scissors.The almost silent soundof snipped cloth fallingon the table round my feet. A bodice of pins drew downover my head like a scaffold.I spent my childhood in the seaor standing on a table – 'A sway back!'she said proudly.Once I wore a tablecloth as a skirtto school and before that curtainsas a dress.I was a ... (read more)

States of Poetry 2016 - South Australia | 'Telephone' by Kate Llewellyn

States of Poetry South Australia - Series One • 22 February 2016

You ought to ring upThe farm may have disappearedInto the river – as it does from time to time –Or the trees in the orchard bloomed with starsOr the geese may have rowedin the blue dinghy adorned with hundredsof marigolds to the islandwith six of them sitting straight upon the bench, the other two heaving an oarwhile the rooster watches appalledon the shore.The peacocks may have grown tailsOrc ... (read more)

States of Poetry 2016 - South Australia | 'Sleep' by Kate Llewellyn

States of Poetry South Australia - Series One • 22 February 2016

1. To enter the bed we kneelAnd fall into the white abyss.Sleep is a form of faintingThe altar of the pillows swirls with wispsOf fading consciousness – a priestComes down the aisle flicking dreams outFrom an ancient ewer. 2. Watch a sleeping manEven then they still seem awesomeTo me with an air of tragedyLike a fallen horse.His conversation with the nightIs not the same as mine,Our personali ... (read more)

States of Poetry 2016 - South Australia | 'Possibly' by Kate Llewellyn

States of Poetry South Australia - Series One • 22 February 2016

How's Possibly doing today?She's okay, she's possiblyrecovering from a possible asthma attack.What's Possibly doing? The impossible,That's what. Attending to twenty studentssome of whom will possibly failtasks Possibly set which they feelare impossibly high.Possibly is cooking dinner for tenand being polite in impossibly demandingsituations. Possibly would like to take a breakfrom her situation bu ... (read more)

States of Poetry 2016 - South Australia | 'Oxytocin' by Kate Llewellyn

States of Poetry South Australia - Series One • 22 February 2016

On this bright morninga cruel wind is up.I don't care –last night I strode among the stars.Black swan shelter in the sandhills' lee,while pelicans stand preeningon the lagoon's edge.We each must share our little pillof poison – a tattooed drummer,a drunk, a married man –while we sit at kitchen tablesdrinking tea with other women.Rain pelts down the windowswhile we talk about the promisesthey ... (read more)