This poem is inspired by a woven grass mummy created by Christina, a bavarian artist staying at Tyrone Guthrie.

tears gather under the surface

grief unformed like the child not born

accompanies me into silence.

I found the first few days of this residency challenging because of the jetlag- and the silence that you fall into when all you have to convene with is your muse day in and day out with no distractions. It has really made me hone in on what I want to write about and what drives the stories I have worked on so far in this residency.

There are some really inspiring musicians, poets and artists in residence this week. They include Moya Brennan who is a famous irish singer with three of her companions who have been described as the queens of irish music by the irish artists that are here. They sing for us around the table every night and in return I have sung “waltzing matilda”- badly.

Today I’m leaving for Dublin for 5 weeks to take up an Australia Council residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre. There I intend to work on my new novel and my upcoming play ”I could be you”which will be in the Girls@Work series at Theatreworks as part of the Fringe Festival.

Silence ended on a high note in Knox courtesy of VicHealth and La Mama. Thank you to everyone who was involved, who attended and asked stimulating questions at the Q and A. There will be a DVD available of the performance about two weeks from now.