Jane Harris

This is a collection of poems of ten years of a writing group, 2003–2013.

I’ve been part of this group for the last 10 years. We come from different backgrounds and experiences but we share a common sense of a bigger reality. We write all kinds of things, but underneath it somewhere is a strong, or faint, sense of mystery. We meet every few weeks, and once or twice a year we’ve spent a weekend at the Foxton house owned by Peter and Dianne Beatson (we’re really grateful to them).

Over the last few years this group has kept me writing poetry when I might have given up. I think the others feel a bit the same way.

In 2012, we decided to make a collection of work from people who’ve been part of the group during its existence. We set ourselves a goal – to enter the collection in the Ashton Wylie Awards, which gave us a deadline. Getting a well-ordered, well-edited collection of work together from a wide group of people is a large task. We didn’t have any success in the awards, but meeting the deadline and creating a collection of our work was very satisfying. Now we need to think, where next with it.