July 10

Poems

A baby cries by Maria Josey

A look of love by Steve Gregar

A new life by Daphne Hargreaves

A poem for Kallahari by K. Danielle Edwards

A Quiet Radio, A Dim-Lit Room by Heather Taylor-Johnson

A teenage girl’s mother by Maria Josey

A tyranny of infant proportions by Ros Schulz

An autistic child to his mother by Caitlin Louise Thomas

At twelve by Sharon Kernot

Baby blue by Jackie Hosking

Balloon World by Ros Schulz

Bath towel wings by Nathan Curnow

Bubble bath babe by Marilyn Linn

Careless by Debra Kaufman

Collecting honey by Silvia Manuela

Creation by Sheryl Persson

Earth to Avoca by John Blackhawk

Edges of me by Lyndal Edwards

Five-day-old parents by Cameron Semmens

Flowers for Anna by Linda Wyrill

For Hannah by Kylie Lehman

Goodnight by Michelle Brock

Harvey by Stella Jones

Have you done your jobs yet? by Jackie Hosking

Hey, watch this! by Heather Taylor Johnson

I remember… by Liana de Jong

If I would by Shoshana Kleiman

Laura by Sheryl Persson

Labour of love by Maria Quinn

Little gems by Siimon Petkovich

Letting go by Vesna Leto

Love at eight by Debra Kaufman

Manflight by Heather Matthew

Married with children: An aubade by Brandy Lien Worrall(-Yu)

Moods of a mother (with postnatal depression) by Kristin Martin

Motherhood by Sue King-Smith

My grandchild by Marilyn Linn

My Life - Dawn to Dusk and then some...) by Victoria Purdie

My perfectly imperfect princess by Kimberlee Francis

New beginnings by Felicity Chapman

Night terrors by Jackie Hosking

No Giants by Ros Schulz

Ode to pregnancy by Karen Peradon-Alaga

Ode to Sadie by Missy Willis

Painting your picture by Kylie Lehman

Please Don’t Play in the Toilet by Jackie Hosking

Reverse Parenting by Sheryl Persson

Poo sticks by Teresa Dikkenberg

Portrait by Heather Taylor-Johnson

Reef dreaming by Ray Liversidge

Revisionist tale by Khadijah Ali-Coleman

Roman at three by Maria Josey

School of elephants by Linda Wyrill

Second shift by K. Danielle Edwards

Secret and silent rock by John Blackhawk

Seeds of Honesty by Ros Schulz

Spared by Sheryl Persson

Stark raving mad by Mardi Sheridan

Support by Heather Taylor Johnson

Sweating it out by Ian C Smith

The dream that haunts me by Hal Judge

The sound and the sigh by K. Danielle Edwards

The three of them by Marilyn Linn

The Transit of Venus by Sheryl Persson

The tricycle by Tiggy Johnson

They think I’m normal now by K. Danielle Edwards

Thirteen by Sharon Kernot

This girl will burn… by Hal Judge

Those laughing eyes by Richard & Esther Provencher

Through Daddy’s eyes by Richard L. Provencher

Today we played by Missy Willis

Tom is growing up by Fiona Johnston

Trio by Andrew Slattery

TV Tragedy by Anne-marie Taplin

Untitled by Lynette Washington

Voices by Sharon Kernot

Wiggles by Tiggy Johnson

Will He? by Richard L. Provencher

“My patience, resolutions and beliefs are tested to the limits – sometimes daily.”*

Right at this moment one of my challenges is the constant, tuneless whistling from my elder son. When my boys were babies it was getting them to sleep or trying to figure out why they were crying. On any given day now, it might be squabbling, fighting, teasing, screaming, shouting or rudeness. Who’d be a parent? We might well question ourselves after the event, but we can’t very well put them back! Just how we find those inner resources, how we constantly demand more of ourselves, how we keep marching up that hill with a smile on our face and gladness in our heart at the sight of our ‘babies’ is one of life’s mysteries.

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* © from Being Mummy by Anne‑marie Taplin published April 2007