Indrani Perera

poet, publisher & mentor

Month: September 2019

Bush Life

I spent last week camping in the bush. Five days of being outdoors during the day and sleeping in a tent at night. Breathing in fresh air. Spending time sitting and doing nothing. Falling asleep on the grass under the tall, tall trees. Gazing into the flickering flames of the camp fires at night.

The Wild By Nature Village camps are heart-warming soul food, full of nourishing activities and beautiful people. There are programs for adults, children and toddlers. It's a camp with a place for the whole family to come and connect with others and the earth.

How many camps offer an incredible library of field guides and nature connection books? Not many, I bet. This camp had a bush library cobbled together out of old milk crates found on site as well as a nature table where campers could place their interesting finds. Books plus nature equals bliss.

September 30, 2019
Poetry Challenge – Week Thirty-Eight

Week 38 words from @treen_42: twisted, vision, responsibility, warmth and purple.

when I donned purple

I shed responsibility

and embraced

the warmth of liberation

my vision no longer

twisted by obligation

~~~~

Here are the words and my poem for the thirty-eighth week of the 2019 Poetry Challenge.

When I finally say down to write this poem, it didn't take too long to create because the words were already rumbling around in my subconscious. It did, however, take me a long time to pick up the pencil and start writing. I've been in my head so much lately, I took a mini break to make something with my hands.

I read so many blog posts and articles talking about writing as a job that you have to turn up to every day. As if creativity is a machine that has to be turned over regularly at the same time and in the same place. My creativity doesn't work that way. It comes and goes in fits and starts. One minute I'm all about eco-dyeing and the next, you can't stop me talking about poetry. As for regular times and places – I squeeze it in and around my daughters, snatching five minutes here and there when I can. If there's one thing I know, it's this – everyone's creative process is as unique as they are.

If you want to join the 2019 Poetry Challenge, head on over to my Instagram account (@indraniperera) where I post the words for the week on Mondays (mostly) in my story. Write a poem and post it. Be sure to tag me and use the hashtags #2019poetrychallenge and #livepoetsclub.

If you don't want to write a poem, you can still be part of the 2019 Poetry Challenge. Send me five random words and I'll use them in a poem. Either DM me on Instagram with the words or send me an email (indrani at indraniperera dot com).

Happy writing!

September 27, 2019
Water Remedy

Nothing beats the post holiday blues quite like time spent in nature.

It was so good to be back in nature this week, sitting by the creek and listening to the birds. It's spring and they're very excited. Chirping loudly, swopping across the sky joyfully, building nests and feeding young. The sun was out and there was nowhere else I had to be.

Balm for the soul.

September 23, 2019
Poetry Challenge – Week Thirty-Seven

Week 37 words from @libbysommer_author: cappuccino, coffee, cafe, newspaper and iphone.

it's been a long time

since I sat in a cafe

leisurely sipping my cappuccino

(aaah, sweet coffee)

and reading the newspaper

while I waited

for my big brekkie to arrive

now I find

stolen moments

for myself

hiding in the kitchen

from my kids

while I check messages

on my iphone

~~~~

Here are the words and my poem for the thirty-seventh week of the 2019 Poetry Challenge.

I have to admit, when I first read the words for this week I wasn't particularly inspired. They were so ordinary. And yet that is where their beauty lies. It's so easy to get caught up in the flash and fancy that we forget the value in the simple pleasures. Never take them for granted I say!

If you want to join the 2019 Poetry Challenge, head on over to my Instagram account (@indraniperera) where I post the words for the week on Mondays (mostly) in my story. Write a poem and post it. Be sure to tag me and use the hashtags #2019poetrychallenge and #livepoetsclub.

If you don't want to write a poem, you can still be part of the 2019 Poetry Challenge. Send me five random words and I'll use them in a poem. Either DM me on Instagram with the words or send me an email (indrani at indraniperera dot com).

Happy writing!

September 20, 2019
Handmade

There's just so much to love about Bali. The warm, tropical weather. The patient, friendly Balinese. The bustling streets and chaotic traffic. And for me, all the beautiful handicrafts. People are still using traditional methods to make the things they need.

The Balinese still use their hands and time to create objects of beauty. From the everyday palm leaf offering baskets to my favourites – the elaborate penjour lining the streets at festival time. Handmade is part of life. It is valued and respected. It is important and necessary.

When you travel around Bali you get to see people making their wares. From the statue seller carving wood in his stall to the woman sitting at the loom at an historic site, weaving sarongs the traditional way.

And it has so much heart and soul. You can feel the spirits of the makers peering out at you as you browse the souvenirs in the street stalls. Wood carvings, silver jewellery, sarongs, scarves, chocolate, coffee all bear the idiosyncratic marks of their makers.

Visiting Bali was balm for my maker's soul. It was so wonderful to be in a country filled with makers. It's this heritage we need to reclaim. This connection to our bodies and our creative spirit. Let's make the things we need!

September 18, 2019
Street Life

I'm back home and finding it hard to settle into everyday life.

I miss the weather, the vibrancy and the exoticness of Bali. Most of all I miss all the people at the hotel we would chat to every day. When I'm travelling, I relax and I'm much more open to striking up a conversation with a stranger around the pool or in a local shop. It's partly because I have more time and less care. There's someone cleaning my room every day, a chef to cook my meals, a laundry to wash my clothes, a pool to entertain the girls and a chauffeur if we ever wanted to go on a trip.

Not having a car meant we did a lot of walking. Along the beach to drop off our laundry, get a massage or have an ice cream. Down the street to check out all the funky little shops, buy water at the supermarket or go out to dinner. Strolling outside our room to jump in the pool. Walking is one of my favourite things to do and I love the feeling of living in a village and being able to reach everything I need on foot. It feels so much more personal than multi lane roads and enormous supermarkets.

Life in Bali seems to be lived out in the open (it helps to have a tropical climate I know) with a lot of verve and colour. It seems everything is on display and shops often spill out on to the street without care for council regulations or health and safety. There's an implicit assumption that you're more than able to look after yourself. I like it.

September 16, 2019
Poetry Challenge – Week Thirty-Six

Week 36 words from @bsingamchow: natural, fluids, reminds, ambiguous and glitter.

There's a trigger warning for this week's poem around the theme of death.

his eyes are glazed, staring at nothing

the fluids leak from his small furry body

wrapped in a towel and held in loving arms

while we laugh and weep and tell stories

the primal howl, eerie and haunted

five minutes before he dies

a last effort from his body

to cling to life and to us

his natural death reminds us

of frailty and inevitability

while we cling, ambiguous

to all the glitter

falling from our eyes

~~~~

Here are the words and my poem for the thirty-sixth week of the 2019 Poetry Challenge.

I wasn't sure about posting this poem. It deals with a mostly taboo topic in our culture – death. I'm not intending to offend or confront anyone with my words. However, I wanted to publish it because we don't talk about death. We don't know how to deal with death. We don't know how to explain it to our children. We don't know how to nurse the terminally ill or care for our selves in the sundering and the grieving. I don't have any answers, all I have is my experience and this poem.

If you want to join the 2019 Poetry Challenge, head on over to my Instagram account (@indraniperera) where I post the words for the week on Mondays (mostly) in my story. Write a poem and post it. Be sure to tag me and use the hashtags #2019poetrychallenge and #livepoetsclub.

If you don't want to write a poem, you can still be part of the 2019 Poetry Challenge. Send me five random words and I'll use them in a poem. Either DM me on Instagram with the words or send me an email (indrani at indraniperera dot com).

Happy writing!

September 13, 2019
Blessed

I finally got to visit a silversmithing workshop in Bali. The town of Celuk (pronounced Cheluk) is famous all around the world for it's beautiful silver jewellery. When I came here on my honeymoon in 2003, it seemed far too hard to organise a car and a driver to get here. After the wedding, my husband and I just wanted to relax. This year, however, my tour guide Dad was on the case and he did all the organising for us.

Villages in Bali are nothing like I imagined them to be. Houses and shops are strung along the narrow windy roads that perch on top of ridges radiating out from mountains or volcanoes. Go back from the road a little way and you'll soon encounter a jaw breaking drop. Motorbikes wend their way in and out of traffic, looking like they'll crash at any minute but never seem to come to any harm.

When we got to Celuk we got out of the car and walked up and down a small section of the street. Popping in and out of silver shops on the way so my oldest daughter could look at jewellery. She had some pocket money to spend in Bali and wanted to spend it on jewellery. I must say, I admire her taste in souvenirs!

On the way we discovered a little gem. Sunsri was an experience containing a museum, jewellery workshop and showrooms with the most exquisite pieces. There were six showrooms, each with it's own name, decor and scent. And of course, lots and lots of beautiful pieces of silver jewellery. Perhaps next time I'm in Bali I can do a silver workshop!

September 11, 2019
Karta Gosa

In a trip packed with highlights, our visit to the remains of Karta Gosa in Klungkung was another highlight. Karta Gosa was one of the many royal places dotted thoughout the island of Bali and you can still see some of the remains. Sadly, when the Dutch invaded, then colonised the country, a lot of the original complex including the living quarters was destroyed. What remains, however, is magnificent.

The style of architecture in Bali is very different from Australia – there is a lot of ornate decoration and of course the materials used are different as the Balinese climate is different to much of Australia. We respond to the materials around us and use them to shape what we need. Of course, we have to adapt to what is around us so the materials shape us in turn. It's a fascinating interplay between humans and landscape.

The grounds contained the Colonial Court of Justice, the Floating Palace which was surrounded by a moat, the gate to the living quarters and a museum. You can see the Indian and Hindu influences in the sculptures adorning the buildings.

I find it hard to articulate what it is about this place that had me so in thrall. I know, I'm supposed to be a poet, right? It was incredibly beautiful, elaborate and ornate. And so very different from the buildings at home which I think was a huge part of its charm. And of course, it has all been built by hand using traditional methods and that's evident in the sculptures and the buildings. They were obviously made by master crafts people who were highly skilled. What's not to love about that?

September 9, 2019
Poetry Challenge – Week Thirty-Five

Week 35 words from @poetpre: dazzling, mirror, oasis, constellation and reconnaissance.

the sunlight shimmers

on the surface of the mirage

a dazzling mirror of life

reflecting all you've hidden

– no oasis here

in her eyes reflected

a constellation

yet to be mapped

by a human reconnaissance

~~~~

Here are the words and my poem for the thirty-fifth week of the 2019 Poetry Challenge.

This poem wrote itself. It happens sometimes – the words come and I write them down, a conduit for inspiration and ideas. I'm not sure what it means, I leave that up to you to decipher and decide. This one was a gift and I for one am not questioning my muse or counting horse's teeth. I advise you to do the same should you ever find yourself in my position.

If you want to join the 2019 Poetry Challenge, head on over to my Instagram account (@indraniperera) where I post the words for the week on Mondays (mostly) in my story. Write a poem and post it. Be sure to tag me and use the hashtags #2019poetrychallenge and #livepoetsclub.

If you don't want to write a poem, you can still be part of the 2019 Poetry Challenge. Send me five random words and I'll use them in a poem. Either DM me on Instagram with the words or send me an email (indrani at indraniperera dot com).

Happy writing!

September 6, 2019