‘Tell the truth but tell it slant’. Emily Dickinson’s marvellous oblique perception embodies the writer’s task – to invite curiosity. I don’t pretend to be a poet – I seek the poetic in the everyday. I love to notice the ordinary and wonder at what it reveals to us. I write stories that happen around me – in my neighbourhood, by the creek, at the drop-in centre, in conversation with friends. I find joy and sorrow signal their presence as we witness one another’s lives.
Poet David Whyte says, ‘we are creatures of the long goodbye.’ In observing movements of greeting and parting we can see our small lives under a big sky that holds us in the loveliness and hardship of being human.