01 June, 2011

Book Group

May Book Group Collage

I love my book group. It's a wonderful group of gorgeous women who get together once a month, regenerating my soul and encouraging me to stretch the boundaries of my reading. We've been going for about 2 years and it really is the highlight of my month.

So we got together on Sunday. A few things had happened which meant the original plan had not come to fruition, so one of our number came up with a wonderful idea to share poetry and a book reading. What followed was a fantastic sharing of inspirational, thoughtful and discussion provoking passages.

We had a very emotional reading of the end of Of Mice and Men, some literary Australian history with Banjo Paterson's work and a smattering of other lovely readings. The highlight however, was a poem by Kate Llewellyn read by the beautiful Rachael.

Breasts

As I lean over to write
One breast warm as a breast from the sun
hangs over as if to read what I'm writing
Sometimes exploring the inside curve of my elbow
Sometimes measuring a man's hand
Lying still as a pond
Until he cannot feel he is holding anything
but water
Then he dreams he is floating.

In the morning my breast is refreshed
And wants to know something new
As you will realise
These are my body's curious fruit
Wanting to know everything
Always getting there first
Strange as white beetroot
Exotic as unicorns
I know my breast knows more than I do
Prying, hanging over fences
Interested as a reporter
Or eager as a woman wanting to gossip.
They tell me nothing
But they say quite a lot about me.

One of our members, and one of my oldest and bestest friends, Joanne,  is a budding photographer and she took and collaged the photos at the beginning of the post and agreed to let me use it here. Please note the wine and the cheese, essential parts of our book group!  I'd provide a website, but she doesn't have one! Thanks for the photo Jo, it's gorgeous. I look forward to next months!