How promising this seedling

that started life as a cutting.

A ministering midwife I potted

watered and watched it grow.
 

How delicate these roots

whose white, fragile fingers

entwine the parent soil

holding on to life.

How strong this fledgling Hebe

nesting in sun-drenched loam

leaves open like hungry beaks

roots winging a subterranean sky.

A former English teacher, Liz McQuilkin began writing poetry after retiring. Her collaboration – with Karen Knight, Christiane Conésa-Bostock, Megan Schaffner and Liz Winfield – in the collection "Of Things Being Various" (Forty Degrees South) won the FAW National Community Award in 2010. "The Nonchalant Garden" (Walleah Press, 2014), was her first solo collection. She collaborated again with Karen Knight in "Renovating Madness" (Walleah Press, 2018). Her second solo collection, "Unwrapping Clouds", was published by Forty South in 2022.