The Bridge I’ve Been Building

I’ve been walking toward this for a long time.

For me, writing poetry has never been about craft or output.
It’s about return.
It’s how I come back to myself when the world — or my own patterns — have carried me too far away.

I was thinking about it this morning and realised that I have been writing from my heart for a long time. That is what poetry is – well my sort anyway – writing from the heart. Poetry listens and then shows you something when you write.

And it will change you.

When you consistently write from the heart without placing filters and editing on top of it, you begin to speak and think from the heart as well. Once this level of authenticity is reached it becomes difficult to be out of alignment. And as Gandi says

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” 

A small indication that it is transforming you will become obvious when you see how your mirrors begin to change. Other people are our mirrors. And mine have been changing. A lot. I have many instances of people talking deeply to me these days. Over counters, bumping into me when I’m walking, or just in passing or by email.

This morning it was in a shop. I was almost brought to tears as the shop owner told me that a young man I don’t really know (but who I do know is the same age as my sons) had taken his own life. This is on top of hearing of a woman my age who did the same thing in the last fortnight. People are lost. What was more, the man telling me about this tragedy was also lost. I could see it in his eyes, he was at a loss to explain this to himself, let alone anyone else how he really felt.

“Why is this happening?” He asked me. And I have my own ideas on that.

How do we cope when the world is now geared more towards digital identity than human presence?

I can’t save anyone, and I’m not a trained therapist or counsellor either. But I have used one or two of those and found them distinctly unhelpful. Or rather, I was unhelpful to myself, I didn’t open up to them the way I do to a page of paper.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about how poetry has saved me so many times over the years and whether I could impart that sort of knowledge to others for their own use.

I don’t feel at all qualified, but I will try. I will try really hard because I know it works. This poetry of mine healed me. Other people’s poetry can heal them. I just have to work out the right system that is repeatable and can be accessed by anyone. It’s called a subconscious – and we all have one.

Why poetry and not simply writing? Well writing is like speaking – we can venture into the land of the unconscious very easily.

Writing is great, we have to move things off our chest and writing does that whether it is read or not.

But we haven’t always listened before speaking | writing.

Poetry is listening and then transcribing what you hear internally. It is the language of your soul and it speaks the truth.

So after a great deal of thought – this is my offering.

It’s called Heart to Tongue | A poetry workshop
It’s shared.
It’s live.
It’s small. And honest. And free.
And it matters more than I can say.

This isn’t a class in poetry. I don’t consider myself to be a poet, so much as a person who uses poetry and sometimes, mostly, I allow it to use me, to teach me more about myself.
It’s a session in deep listening — to yourself, mostly.
And then, when the time comes, to others.

The first workshop will be held on Zoom, on 15 July 2025
There’s no cost. A limit of six people. A few hours. And a lot of quiet courage.

You can read more about it here and if you wish to register your interest simply email me at kate@groundwaterpublishing.com.au

Seats are limited intentionally to keep the group small. And if noone shows up that’s fine, I’ll keep showing up each month until someone does. This is important to me.

If lots of people suddenly reach out then I will add more dates in. I’m not advertising this widely – just here and on SubStack in the weekly newsletter for now.

It’s free because I believe that there is more to life than the exchange of money. Sometimes the exchange of meaning and energy is far more valuable, I have found this to be true.

Thanks
love,