The trees around my house have noticed that it’s been autumn for three days and have thus shed a bunch of leaves. It feels very early in the year to be having autumn, but perhaps it’s more about Melbourne having not really had a summer. It was cold and wet until the end of December and January and February were suspiciously cool.

In my creative world, my poetry group has recently dissolved. I joined in 2015, which seems like a lifetime ago really, and I have been attending on a monthly basis (or there abouts) since then. It’s strange to not have the group there, encouraging me, forcing me to write at least twelve poems per year if only to have something to bring to the meetings.

I’ve put out some feelers to other writers who might be interested in starting an alternate group, probably on the same monthly basis, but it’s not what I would call settled at this stage. Fingers crossed I can smoothly transition into comparable relationship with some other poets.

It’s strange to think about the passage of time. Especially with the two years or so that were hijacked with COVID and the restrictions of that, not to mention my car accident and the recovery from that. It feels a little like we’re still in 2019 but I also feel a lot older than I did back then.

I posted recently on my Facebook that I was becoming more cottage core in my old age. I’m approaching 40 (it’s next year but it still feels quite soon) and my interests seem to be more and more domestic. I crochet, I bake, cook, garden, and think about interior decorating much more than I ever did when I was a young person.

Sometimes I look at young people and wonder if they’re some sort of alien species. So much energy and faith in the world. I’m very tired and cynical by comparison. I don’t remember being that exuberant, but I suppose I must have been more excitable than I am nowadays.

Not to say that I dislike the new version of me; I’m quite content to be more of a homebody than I used to be. The two years or so of lockdowns didn’t help in getting me out of the habit of going out to see bands etc. Maybe 2023 will be a year to get back into going outside, but maybe that’s not something that I want anymore.

If you’re a Melbourne based poet and would like to get involved with a workshop group, feel free to email me. Otherwise, wish me luck in organising a new group.