Inspirations

Inspirations is a collection of photographs, each accompanied by a poem depicting Constanze Hawkins’ love of the natural world. The poems capture the thoughts and wonder inspired by the photos. Constanze herself took all of the photographs, mostly near her Perth home on the grounds of the University of Western Australia. Even the photo of the peacock was taken at UWA, which has a few peacocks and peahens roaming freely in its gardens.

The photos accompanying the poems ‘Before the Storm,’ ‘Canal Rocks,’ ‘Ocean Winter,’ and ‘Shrine’ were taken south of Perth in Western Australia’s iconic Margaret River region. Inspirations offers an interesting and at times thought-provoking read as Constanze’s reverence for nature shines through in both image and verse.

Constanze Hawkins studied fashion and worked in the fashion industry until her retirement. She then began to write poetry in earnest. Constanze grew up in Melbourne (Victoria, Australia) and moved to Perth (Western Australia) with her young family when she was a young mother. Her love of natural world began in her own childhood. The family home was situated near a creek and much bushland and Constanze spent many happy hours playing and roaming there when she was a child. This fostered what became a lifelong love of the natural world.