POETRY SPOTLIGHT: 'The Jetty' by Kate Llewellyn
This week's poetry spotlight shines once again on Kate Llewellyn's beautiful collection, Harbour.
Earlier in the series, Poppy featured Kate's poem 'Frost' from the same collection. It's a calming and quiet celebration of the ordinary beauty of nature (read Poppy's thoughtful post about it here). In a similar vein, this week's feature poem is an intimate and gentle study of creativity and friendship.
Post written by Maddy Sexton
As we watch Melbourne turn back to lockdown, I find myself feeling guilty at times for having the freedom of movement and relative safety that living in Adelaide grants at such a time. Worse still is that even with all of my freedom, I'm still finding it hard to use the time wisely. I've let my reading and laundry pile up, craft projects sit, ignored, under other things on the to-do list. I've hit a creative wall, it seems.
My locked down eastern friends all list off the myriad things they would be doing if they 
weren't sensibly isolating: going to book stores for a browse, having a drink at the pub. Makes me feel even sillier for not forcing myself to do those things!
Being tasked with choosing a poem of the week couldn't have come at a better time. After spotting Kate Llewellyn's collection Harbour on our shop's shelves, and flicking through the pages, I chanced upon this week's feature poem:
The Jetty
Something about this poem really soothed the disquiet I've been feeling. It reads to me as if the two people are in fact two versions of Kate: one her actual self, the other her creative self. My interpretation is that after a long period of struggling to create, Kate takes a step back, re-centres herself, and suddenly finds herself able to write once more.
This poem made me feel like the fisherman's bucket – not exactly empty, but full of hope. It reminded me that slowing down and having a break from things is not something to feel bad about necessarily, and that creativity is never really gone. Perhaps mine is just crouched down with the fisherman on the jetty.
About the author:
Kate Llewellyn is the author of 25 books comprising poetry, memoir, travel, essays, journals, and letters. She is the co-editor of The Penguin Book of Australian Women Poets. Her book The Waterlily: A Blue Mountain Journal sold over 35,000 copies and is soon to be republished. Kate was the first National Secretary of the Poets Union of Australia and now lives in Hove, South Australia.
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