Postcard to Byron Bay

by Tiffany Plummer

Photo by Shubham Sharma, Unsplash

Dear Byron Bay

Oh, how I needed to be shipwrecked upon your shore.

Remnants of a nurse with a volume of discontent dialled high, my inner sanctum, a spreading bloom of disillusionment and hostility.

I felt lost.

Withered and puckered, I entered your cove.

Dead words within me, a silent writer.

Every morning I walked your coastline toward that beacon of light in hope of it illuminating a way forward for a lost spirit.

I spied in amongst the tropical storm, a palm flower. Its long, delicate pink tendrils slowly unfurling from the small pod it was escaping from. In my mind, a signpost I was on the right path.

I sat at a large crafted table with a listener, a farmer, a publican’s wife, a film producer, a teacher and a curator and together a writerly bond developed through a collective of stories and poems, discussions and art.

Over time I came to my senses.

Over time I shoved that bloody block out the way.

Overtime I began to see a lit path, step by step, scene by scene.

My own inner-ness was starting to unfurl.

I walked onwards, eventually reached the foundation stones of your crowning light where one can taste the salt on her lips from sweat and spray. It was exhilarating standing at such a vista. On the track back, my palm flower began to cascade over and into itself, a bloom of seed and scent.

I leave with a ship full of yes’s and more importantly no’s. With morning ritual, with meditation and a vision of sheer will. It is pink and cascading and its need to be is greater than the constraints placed around it.

So, thank you Byron Bay for the opportunity

To journey

To escape

To create

To write

You gave me more than you know

Tiffany x

©Tiffany Plummer, 2022.

Tiffany at work, Byron Bay.

Tiffany Plummer is a Melbourne writer currently working on her first novel. In her spare time, she works as a Hospital After Hours Co-ordinator of a major public hospital. She attended our Belongil Beach Writer’s Retreat at Byron Bay in Feb 2022.

The writers with our host Jen of www.thecreateescape.co

Jan Cornall leads international writers retreats and workshops. See pics.

www.writersjourney.com.au

Insta: @_writersjourney