Yass Valley Writers recently released a sixth collection of prose and poetry titled Voices from the Valley: An Anthology of Stories and Verse, Vol VI. The anthology features writing by 17 members of the group.

A friendly and relaxed forum, the Yass Valley Writers group has now been meeting for 26 years. While based in the New South Wales town of Yass, over the years members have also been drawn from Goulburn, Boorowa, Murrumbateman, Queanbeyan and Canberra.

The convenor of Yass Valley Writers is local writer, Jane Baker. Jane creates a welcoming and comfortable environment at meetings which, I’m sure, is why the group has been successful for so many years. The following lines are from Jane’s poem, A Quiet Joy:

So now I feel no guilt
when I stand to watch a wagtail
preen upon a post or
a leaf gleam green then silver
with the passing of a breeze.

The current Anthology was edited by Yass writer of speculative fiction, Phillip Berrie. You can read more about Phillip on his Goodreads page here. The prose extract shown below is taken from Phillip’s story, Love Is Blind, in which a wizard places a circlet on the head of Lucinda’s mistress, Cytherin, before staring intently into her eyes:

“Can you see any marks?” The man turned Cytherin’s unresisting head casually from side to side.

The skin was flawless. “No. Where have they gone?”

The man gave a small chuckle of satisfaction. “Not gone, just forgotten. Now stand back, please.”

Lucinda stepped back, as did the wizard. He clicked his fingers.

Cytherin gave a start and brought her hands up as if to ward off an attack. “What happened? Your eyes? What did you do to me?”

…   …   …

Cytherin relaxed. “I’m sorry. You have done a wondrous thing, master wizard. I am grateful for the gift.”

The wizard bowed again. “And now you must forgive me, I have other duties to attend to this day.”

Cytherin smiled at him and went back to looking at her face in the mirror while Lucinda accompanied him to the door.

“Lucinda,” said the wizard on the threshold. “You must remind your mistress that the illusion, though continuous, is tenuous. Anyone touching her face or even the circlet will see the truth. She must learn to keep people at a distance if she does not wish them to see her scars.”

“Yes, master wizard.”

Kate Cameron from Yass always entertains the group with her wit and rhyme. Her endless creativity never ceases to amaze and her poems are often accompanied by wonderful illustrations. Kate also provided the cover illustration for the anthology (shown above). Here is Kate’s poem, Mersheep:

A woolly ewe fell in the ‘drink’
But luckily she did not sink
A Merman spied and wooed and wed her
And up the coral path he led her.

Their offspring have both wool and scales
And lanolin and fishy tails
The added bonus to this link
Mersheep have wool that doesn’t shrink!

Canberra poet and short story writer, Colin Campbell, used his childhood in Suffolk, England, as background for the poem, Dick. The pacing and phrasing of Colin’s poem work perfectly to accentuate the wistful, reflective nature of the subject. Here is an extract from Dick:

and now he’s gone    and so’s his garden
his rickety greenhouse and his fruit
he could lay a hedge    plough a field
single beet    build a stack    milk a herd
and do countless other things
skills that have gone with him
for they are no longer needed
he used to say, “a machine can do it all today
they don’t need blokes like me no more”
there are no poppies in the corn now
or docks or thistles    and the landscape
is still and empty of other things too
like elms and lapwings
and this solitary skilful man—
he who toiled under a wide Suffolk sky
in a green and growing world—
is now a fading figure with the sun behind him

You can purchase a copy of Voices from the Valley: An Anthology of Stories and Verse, Vol VI from Amazon via this link.