The Bus Stop. A Fragment
Brian Barratt has warming memories of a village bakery.
Home | Blue, Green, Red and Purple
May 28, 2013
April 17, 2009
Thoughts On Anzac Day TV
Betty Collins's poem voices sobering thoughts on a solemn day in the Australian calendar.
March 13, 2009
Heimwee (Homesickness)
Betty Collins’s poem expresses the wish that we all share, no matter how old we are, to go home.
March 01, 2009
Moonflower (Datura)
Betty Collins's poem is imbued with natural peace.
February 11, 2009
Pavane For A Dead Tiger
Betty Collins’s poem mourns the death of a noble creature.
September 05, 2007
Toy Boys
Betty Collins's poem probes the subject of sex - and allied matters.
July 22, 2007
Half-Caste
Betty Collins’s profound poem says that “remember’’ is a better word than “sorry’’ for someone born of love and hate.
July 15, 2007
Tadpoles
…-Oh Lord!
I wish I’d grown up to be a frog…
Betty Collins contemplates the nature of an amphibian wonder.
December 31, 2006
Body Parts: Breasts
Betty Collins sums up a woman’s lifespan in twenty brief poetic lines.
December 25, 2006
Christmas Psalm
Betty Collins provides the very words that are needed on this special day.
December 17, 2006
Body Parts - Elbows
Ever cut a slice of bread?
Conducted an orchestra?
Changed a tire?
Driven a car?
Betty Collins spares a poetic moment or two to praise elbows. For more of Betty’s memorable poems please visit Red, Green, Red and Purple in the menu on this page.
December 10, 2006
Sideshow (at Womadelaide)
…in a shelter of shabby shadecloth,
two thin dark men
tell stories of the Dreamtime…
While the kings and queens of world music are strutting their stuff there’s a sideshow which catches Betty Collins’s compassionate eye.
December 03, 2006
Riposte
…When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we’ve no money for butter...
Betty Collins has written a sprightly riposte to Jenny Joseph’s oft-quoted lines.
November 26, 2006
Street Litter
Betty Collins’s sobering poem raises a question. Do you have to be good to do good?
For more of Betty's outstanding poems please click on Blue, Green, Red And Purple in the menu on this page.
November 19, 2006
Storm Brewing
Ah, but the leaves and the flowers know that a storm is on its way, as Betty Collins’s poem reveals.
Do please read more of Betty’s memorable poems by clicking on Blue, Green, Red and Purple in the menu on this page.
November 12, 2006
Stella Maris
‘Mortify the flesh’, they cried, rapping us
on the head with the wedding rings they wore as the Brides of Christ,
and helping us do so with sharp cuts over the knuckles...
Betty Collins writes of a pain-filled convent education.
November 05, 2006
Roots
A thought, deep inside someone’s head in the darkness of some night, inchoate, slowly forming words…
Betty Collins’s poem is about beginnings.
October 29, 2006
Roadside Incident
Betty Collins’s dramatic poem recalls a mercy mission of long ago.
To read more of Betty's poems please click on Blue, Green, Red and Purple in the menu on this page.
October 22, 2006
Rain
You can feel, hear, see the day-long rain in Betty Collins’s atmospheric poem.
To read more of Betty’s poetry please click on Blue, Green, Red and Purple in the menu on this page.
October 15, 2006
RED SHOES
Your banner is nailed to the cross of your own making...
Betty Collins directs a question at the famous whose pictures confront us every day.
October 08, 2006
Prisoner's March
Each man is an island as the prisoners march in Betty Collins’s poem. But there is a hint of hope…
October 01, 2006
Poem For Radio
No sound effects I’m afraid, but you will still find that Betty Collins’s poem for radio is very atmospheric.
September 24, 2006
Penguins II
Betty Collins was inspired to write this poem after reading words written by Australian performance poet Geoff Goodfellow.
Please do visit Geoff's Web site
http://www.vulgar.com.au/goodhome.html
September 17, 2006
Penelope
Betty Collins’s poem muses on a mythic character, and the birth of unfaithfulness.
September 10, 2006
Pavane Valentine
Betty Collins strives to convey the loss which is bigger than any words, bigger, almost, than human heart can bear.
September 03, 2006
Spring Fever
Let out the air from tyres, open out the gates and let out the dogs, open the cages and release the birds…
Betty Collins writes of an unhibited bout of spring fever.
August 27, 2006
Video Clip...Old Ladies In The Swimming Pool
…Gravity suspended turns keys in locks, turns back the clock
and they laugh joyously, witlessly, for the very absurdity of it…
In Betty Collins's colourful poem the ladies in the Senior Aquarobics Class manage to turn back time…until they get out of the pool.
Continue reading "Video Clip...Old Ladies In The Swimming Pool" »
August 20, 2006
Oh Leave Me Not (dot dot.)
Whereas I do not love thee quite as much
As what I did before: it’s still a lot…
There's loneliness beneath the chuckle in Betty Collins's poem.
For lots more poetic gems by Betty click on Blue, Green, Red and Purple in the menu on this page.
August 13, 2006
O Come With Me
Betty Collins's defiant poem calls on young folk to blow the clarinet, to dance, sing, rhapsodise – and legless get.
August 06, 2006
Night In The Suburbs
…Silent suburbs turn their backs on you…
Betty Collins's poem expresses the oppressive feelings of being alone among many.
July 30, 2006
Naming The Kitten
Humans have to put a name to this miniscule four ounces of spitting yellow fluff, but the creature instinctively knows who it is. Betty Collins’s delightful poem approaches the nature of being a cat.
July 23, 2006
My Mother's Coathangers
She came to womanhood in times when girls were gentle,
when homes were soft shelters lined with the breast feathers
of crocheted tablecloths, embroidered cushion covers,
cross-stitch traycloths under shining cups and saucers, and
big teapots warmed by little porcelain ladies wearing
huge fluted woollen crinolines…
Betty Collins’s deeply evocative poem reminds us that something as simple as a set of coathangers can revive the deep comfort of knowing one is at home.
July 16, 2006
My Brother's Letter
A solitay letter. Just one letter, in all those decades. Such a letter deserved a poem to honour its arrival, and Betty Collins wrote one.
July 09, 2006
My Spring
…But for me, I know exactly when it’s Spring:
It’s that moment when, suddenly one morning,
I open my wardrobe door - and there is NOTHING to put on…
For Betty Collins Spring heralds a time to go shopping.
July 02, 2006
Minnie de Kok
Betty Collins’s autobiographical poem celebrates a glorious character, Minnie de Kok, a cook-general who dominated a household.
June 25, 2006
Does It Matter?
…And will there come a day when I look at your face
and see only the face of a stranger?…
Betty Collins writes of the end of memory and affection.
June 18, 2006
In The Park
Betty Collins’s poem expresses a deep, deep longing to be young again.
June 11, 2006
In An Old House
…time is nothing but an abstraction
of our own making…
Betty Collins sets down in words what many feel, but are unable to shape into thoughts.
June 04, 2006
Immigrants - (after Horace)
Those immigrants who cross the ocean change their skies alone, says Betty Collins in this perceptive poem.
“They carry with them all their usual load of woes
their usual nightmares, and their clouds that dim the sun…’’
May 28, 2006
Imam Maningel (The Leader Dies)
hDeat is a natural function, says Betty Collins’s poem – “ The soft and welcome closing in of dark…’’
May 21, 2006
Idyll
After the rain, after the whoosh and the swirling roar settles to a splashing, sparkling, twisting, eager, forward-facing, knowing-where-it’s-going sort of stream, after a while when a cookaburra appears…
Betty Collins writes of an idyllic time.
May 14, 2006
Housewife's Picnic
Betty Collins’s poem reveals that some housewives have been indoctrinated to define the world in terms of household chores.
May 07, 2006
heritage o heritage
Betty Collins’s poem suggests that now is the time for some re-building in the Australian city, Adelaide.
April 30, 2006
Hen's Crow
…I have delivered a big charitable box at the church door.
My life is an open book.
There are no more scuttling horrors behind closed doors…
Oh, the freedom that comes with a good kitchen clean-out. Whoop de doodle dooooo, crows Betty Collins.
April 23, 2006
Heart Attack
…when dat Death Man comes a knockin’ he sure aint for sissies… Betty Collins’s poem about heart attacks is appropriately harsh and uncompromising.
April 16, 2006
No phone calls, no letters…then, salt in the wound, no new e-mail. Betty Collins’s poem concerns loneliness in an electronic age.
April 09, 2006
Heaps Cool...
It’s cool to be an old lady, says Betty Collins – but is it possible to be too cool?
April 02, 2006
Gran's Winter Soup
“My Gran makes soup in the winter
Great big pots of soup: my Gran says:
‘Nothing better than a bowl of soup when its cold’.
And she offers some to nearly everyone who comes to the door.
So embarrassing!’’ says Betty Collins.
March 26, 2006
Ghazal
Betty Collins writes of dainty little wheelie bins, all shining in the rain.
March 19, 2006
Getting On
…Isn’t it sad if the worst you can think of
Is paddling with your skirts tucked into your bloomers…
Betty Collins’s poem says here is not really much to life.
March 12, 2006
The Gardener
It is so easy not to be bothered when one encounters the gardener, as Betty Collins’s poem reveals.
March 05, 2006
Fragment
Betty Collins paints a word portrait of a sunset beach scene.
February 26, 2006
Four Haiku - One Poem
Is the house a fortress? A prison? Betty Collins blends four haiku into a poem that will make you think?
February 19, 2006
Forsaken
Oh when you loved me nights were all as day..
Betty Collins writes a villanelle about the anguish and anger of an abandoned lover.
February 05, 2006
False Spring
Betty Collins writes of the false harbingers of an Australian spring.
January 29, 2006
End Of Season Sale
Betty Collins writes about the wearying business of rummaging in a bin of clothes that are not “just right’’:
…They are cut to fit ladies six foot tall (and six inches wide);
Or four feet tall, and six feet wide….
January 22, 2006
Egrets In A Pasture
Betty Collins sees something of the vampire in egrets which prowl amid the grazing cattle.
January 15, 2006
Dolores Gallagher
In this powerful poem Betty Collins unlocks a searing memory of a long-ago classroom punishment.
January 08, 2006
...Dilly Old Ladies
Old ladies who are dilly are not always as silly
as they pretend
Betty Collins's dilly of a poem is deliciously positive.
January 01, 2006
Demonstrators
Betty Collins's poem expreses a sobering truth - demonstrators don't right the wrongs of the world.
December 26, 2005
Christmas Psalm
Betty Collins's Christmas psalm is for this special time - and for all time.
December 11, 2005
Bugger Off!
The woman in Betty Collins's poem offers a firm instruction to the man whose intention was to steal her virtue.
December 04, 2005
Closure - Yup
"They say that closure’s what they want when someone dies...'' Betty Collins's angry poem demands that officers of the courts should bring about that closure for those who have been wronged.
November 27, 2005
Chamber Music
Little ears listening avidly to the chatter of aunts and uncles... Betty Collins's amusing note-perfect poem recalls every child's experience.
November 20, 2005
Bushman Saga
In this moving and richly nostalgic prose-poem Betty Collins remembers an Empire Exhibition held in Johannesburg in 1936.
November 06, 2005
Bali 2001
Betty Collins sees, beneath the tourist glitter, the dark realities of a paradise island.
October 30, 2005
Ariel: To A Wasp One Fine Summer Morning
Betty Collins pays poetic tribute to a wasp that came in search of cheese.
Continue reading "Ariel: To A Wasp One Fine Summer Morning" »
October 23, 2005
Aquatic Debacle
Betty Collins’s sensuous poem tells of a day when a cruel notice ruined what had started out to be a time of physical delight.
October 09, 2005
Adelaide
“It is a brown city this,’’ says Betty Collin’s poem which, though painting a picture in a single hue, makes Adelaide sound most appealing.
October 02, 2005
Derailleur
A derailleur is a gear-changing mechanism on a bicycle - and that's all you need to know about biking to enjoy this sprightly limerick by Betty Collins.
September 25, 2005
City Below The Sea
On a weekend when the United States is once again battered by the terrible forces of nature, Betty Collins reflects in this prose-poem on the disaster that struck the city of New Orleans.
September 11, 2005
Love Affair
"I could hardly breathe, believe...this wondrous thing was happening to me..'' Betty Collins writes of the joy of love - and of what follows that joy.
June 10, 2005
My First Librarian Was A Greek
Auction lot books - Robinson Crusoe and Marie Corelli, Walter Scott and The Water Babies, The Jungle Book and Peter Pan... Betty Collins's poem expresses the immense joy of discovering literature.
Betty regularly writes for a hugely entertaining Web magazine:
www.bonzer.org.au
Go on! Treat yourself! Click the above link and enjoy the June edition of Bonzer!
Categories
- A Clutch Of Pearlies
- A Court Of Fowls
- A Diary of Innocence
- A Fistful Of Stars
- A Geordie All-Rounder
- A Life Less Lost
- A Lovely Shade Of Blue
- A Potter's Moll
- A Shout From The Attic
- A Spitfire Pilot Remembers
- A Tale Of The Unexpected
- A Writer On Writing
- About A Week
- About Our Words
- After Work
- Alaskan Range
- All That Was
- All This Jazz
- American Pie
- An Englishman In New York
- Ancient Feet
- And Another Thing...
- Animal Stories
- Anna And Rosie
- Arabian Autographs
- Arkell's Ark
- Around The Sun
- As Time Goes By
- Away With Worry
- Backwords
- Beijing 2008 Olympics
- Black Ice
- Blue, Green, Red and Purple
- Bonzer Words!
- Book Bounty
- Born With a Rusty Spoon
- Bradford Lad
- Christmas Every Week
- Classical Composers A-Z
- Clement's Corner
- Consequences
- Darkly Watching
- David Marsh Cartoons
- Day After Day
- Delanceyplace
- Denizens
- Diamonds And Dust
- Donkin's World
- Double Cream
- Down The Holler
- Dr Ron's Laughter Clinic
- Dusk To Dusk
- Ee By Gum Lord!
- Eric Shackle Writes
- Facets Of India
- Family Of Four
- Fast Fiction
- Feather's Miscellany
- Fishcake Words
- Flood
- Footprints
- Got The T-Shirt
- Harry's Tales
- Here Comes Treble
- Here In Africa
- Here's Alison
- Highlights In The Shadows
- I Didn't Belong
- I Only Came For The Music
- Illegal Entry
- Illingworth House
- In Good Company
- In The Small Hours
- Interludes
- It's A Great Life
- Jambo Paulo - Jambo Mykoli
- Jo'Burg Days
- Kiwi Konexions
- Lansdowne Crescent
- Laugh With Lisa
- Lest It Be Forgotten After I Am Gone
- Letter From America
- Letter From The Other Side
- Life Is Too Short To Drink Bad Wine
- Living On Three Continents
- London 2012 Olympics
- London Letter
- Luddite Spring
- Man Bites Talking Dog
- McCaffrey On Fishing
- Mullin' It Over
- My Week
- National Trust News
- North American Dreaming
- Olga's Daughter
- On The Gold Coast
- Open Features
- Opinion And World View
- Over Here
- Oz Musings
- Pamy's Place
- Pins And Needles
- Poetry Pleases
- Rainbow's End
- Ratcatcher
- Rodney's Ramblings
- Roses Aren't Everything
- Sam Pepys – His Diary
- Sandy's Say
- Shalom and Sheiks
- She's Back Again
- Shooting the Breeze
- Simply Sue
- Skidmore's Island
- Smallville
- Spanish Secrets
- Tales from Tawa
- Tasmanian Words
- Thai Girl Tattle
- The Day Before Yesterday
- The First Seventy Years
- The Fourth Wish
- The Great Cley Floods
- The Kingdom Of The Blind
- The Last Star Trek
- The Limit
- The Melody Lingers On
- The Museum Mystery
- The Reyrolle Story
- The Scrivener
- The Shepherdsville Times
- This and That
- Thoughts From The Coast
- Through Lattice Windows
- Time Witnesses
- To War With The Bays
- Two Rooms And A View
- U3A Writing
- Useful And Fantastic
- Views And Reviews
- Visions Of Hope
- Visions of Glory
- Walking the Tightrope
- Walnut Wisdom
- Western Oz Words
- Western Walkabout
- When The Crocodile Smiles
- Word Acts
- Words From Adelaide
- Words In History
- Yorkshire Dialect
- Yorkshire Lad
