Busybird Publishing Open Mic Night #117 Wishing Poem

By Sue Ellson

On Wednesday 18 February 2026, I attended the Busybird Publishing Open Mic Night #117 (my sixth appearance) and shared a brief update in relation to online publishing and read out my poem ‘Wishing.’

I started with a thank you to Kev Howlett and Les Zig for the opportunity to present.

I mentioned how I have been publishing my poems for several years and the outcome of that.

I then read out the poem ‘Wishing.’

Transcript

I’m going to pick you, Sue Ellson, to come up and read a poem, news and Wishing poem. Everyone, please welcome Sue.

Thank you, Kev and Les. And I don’t know whether any of you have seen… well, I’m going to give you a vote now because has anybody seen Les’s videos on social media?

Yes. So please follow Les on social media. Apparently he’s putting them out every day, which is quite incredible.

So far. And his beanie. What’s the shout‑out? Where do I find it? Les Zig or Zig Les, as in it’s spelled back to front. Yeah, Zigles on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, all the things. So yes, even LinkedIn.

So I have some news. This week I joined The Society of Women Writers Victoria. So I would like to encourage every woman in the audience to join. It’s only $80 a year. And what I love about it, is the fact, apart from all the fabulous things they’re doing to encourage women to write, is you get a profile page on their website.

So anybody who knows me knows that I’ve been publishing content online since the year 2001, and the other writers’ organisations don’t give you a profile page on the website. So it’s actually really, really helpful to you.

In January I ran an in‑person workshop on Online Publishing Options at the Melbourne City Library, and then I ran it as a webinar, and that’s free on my website. And what I thought I’d do is just share some little anecdotes about the benefits of publishing online.

So I have published 171 poems on my website, and that doesn’t include the ones that I do most days of the month during Poetry Month in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025.

What I do is I Google myself every day to find out where the poems have been published elsewhere. So they’ve been republished 178 times, or a little excerpt from my poems has been published elsewhere. Now this includes in books, PhD papers, in websites, on social media.

One person did an arts project where she did a heart and she stitched it all, and she put my poem on the back of that.

Another one was in Chicago and he wrote music to one of my poems.

And one of the people who came to the workshop at the Melbourne City Library, she did calligraphy and she chose a piece out of the Death poem which I wrote after my mother died. And so it was a really special thing to receive that in calligraphy.

So I’m here to encourage you to publish your content online.

Tonight is the seventeenth poem that I’ve performed live. And I know Les says you should enter awards. Well, I’ve entered twenty‑four of them and it’s led to nothing. But this poem is called Wishing. So I must have been channelling Beau, because I’m talking about wishing as well.

Wishing Poem

I decided that I
Would like something better
So I grabbed pen and paper
And wrote myself a letter

Dearest Universe
I’d like this and that
I wrote in great detail
All matter of fact

It didn’t seem unreasonable
I felt it was what I deserved
For I had been working hard
And didn’t feel heard

Surely if it was in writing
My intentions would be clear
And surely my wishes
Would be here this year

But as I kept writing
My heart filled with dread
My wishes revealed
My manipulated head

Were these wishes
Really mine
Or had they been planted
By society’s sign

The one that said
You must go this way
For then you’ll be happy
On a future day

But then I thought
Who’s choice was I making
Was it actually mine
And what was I forsaking

For if I wished
For a future fate
I’d miss the present
Of what is already great

I’d ignore my blessings
And dismiss my achievements
I’d forget the strength
From past bereavements

For every loss
And disappointment
Provided growth
Despite the torment

It tempered my soul
And inspired my healing
It gave me the chance
To focus on living

For that is the joy
Of positive and negative
The rollercoaster ride
Delivers a reckoning

To surrender in faith
To truly be humble
To vulnerably release
My every fumble

So I tore up the list
Of random wishes
I’ll focus on this moment
And roll with the punches

I can still take action
Explore and create
And live in harmony
It’s never too late

I don’t need to wish
For anything more
Than the very next breath
And to be true to my core

Thank you.

Thank you, Sue.

See my previous Busybird Publishing Open Mic Nights #102 here, #103 here, #105 here, #106 and #108 here.

You can also see Laurie Smale’s appearance on the same night here.

Shared on Archive.org, Presentations Page, Publications Page, Re-Published Poems Page, Poems Performed Live, Facebook Page, Google, LinkedIn Profile, LinkedIn Page, Substack, Twitter / X, YouTube

See my other poems here or subscribe to the monthly email newsletter to receive links to the latest publications.