The Season of Chance (Walleah Press, 2005). Poetry.

“Anne Collins’ chapbook  The Season of Chance is a truth-teller and the title reflects the strong link the poet has with the landscape, the nature of time and an underlying hope in a climate of uncertainty  . . .  The driving force of these poems doesn’t come from trying to be a poet but from being a poet. These are poems that come unasked for and will not be quiet.” Liz Winfield, launch speech.

We have come to the bridge

ready to cross but

uncertain how to honour

40,000 years with 200.

We offer ourselves and by-pass

the fiction of terra nullius.

Deeper than the loss of words,

more difficult than we imagine,

we feel the blood in our veins,

and sift the grains of truth

inherited from time’s estate.

Smiles return to our bodies

as we look back to the sea of colour

buffeted by a wind bringing a gale.

Holding on to this force,

we cry for a new language

that makes a common piece of road

a passage marked by unsettled minds

trying to remain open to different

questions, instead of the same answers,

wanting to be surprised.

The Bridge by Anne Collins in The Season of Chance