Monday, July 13, 2009

minuit 2


100s and 1000s of flavours make a world. One flavour, two flavours, three flavours, four: Minuit drop flavour packets on the floor. A tasty world. Will you take the risk?

posted by harvey molloy @ 6:24 PM 0 Comments

Minuit 1

There's a part of me which never stops being a fan.
So I'm waiting for the new Minuit CD to come out.

I'm full of great expectations.
Nice type.
Good images.
You take one little bit then another different little bit then another little bit and you arrange them so they form a pattern.
It's a bead; no, it's a rice crispy. No, no, it's styrofoam. It's very light. Natural's not in it.

posted by harvey molloy @ 11:49 AM 1 Comments

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Montana Poetry Day Poems

At 2.30 tomorrow (Sunday) National Radio will be talking about SF with Tim Jones, Helen Lowe and Russell Kirkpatrick, and publisher Lorain Day from Harper Collins.

Now this--

Montana Poetry Day poems on NZ Publishers' websites

To celebrate Montana Poetry Day 2009, Friday 24th July, a number of local poetry publishers, including Victoria University Press, Canterbury University Press, Mallinson Rendel, Huia Books and Seraph Press have placed a favourite poem on their website. MPD poems on websites include:

Break Up Poem by Charlotte Simmonds on the Victoria University Press website - visit:
http://www.victoria.ac.nz/vup/

Waking the taniwha by Karlo Mila on the Huia Books website - visit:
http://www.huia.co.nz/waking-the-taniwha-montana-poetry-day/

Wild Daisies by Bub Bridger on the Mallinson Rendel website - visit:
http://www.mallinsonrendel.co.nz:80/index.asp

The Grey Ones by David Gregory on the Canterbury University Press website - visit:
http://www.cup.canterbury.ac.nz/catalogue/Montana%20Poetry%20Day%202009.shtml

Biograph by Scott Kendrick on the Seraph Press website - visit:
http://homepages.paradise.net.nz:80/seraphpress/

posted by harvey molloy @ 9:03 AM 0 Comments

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

A House on Fire/Our Favourite Poems


Tim Upperton will launch A House on Fire, his debut book of poems published by Steele Roberts, on July 24, National Poetry Day, at the Palmerston North public library at 7PM.

If Four Bananas in the 2008 edition of Best New Zealand Poems is an indication of what's in store for us in 'A House on Fire' then it's very fitting that his launch is on National Poetry Day as this looks like a major poetry event in NZ. Tim's also a good editor. A good editor, in my view, isn't necesarily someone who publishes all your work (though, of course, we love all those who do) but is someone who makes a speedy decision and who provides clear comments on your submission. Beware the black hole editor to whom information can go in but no information can ever escape and especially beware of the rare and highly dangerous editor who actually solicits a submission from you, sits on it for eighteen months or so, and then finally rejects it without comment. (This actually happened to me, just when I had returned to writing.)

We stopped by Te Papa on Monday and my son Taran took me up to the art gallery to look at John Reynolds' work of 7000 or so painted words from the Dictionary of New Zealand English called Cloud. You look up into a haze of local words and think of all those who have spoken them and old teachers like Harry Orsman (a lovely man who taught me Middle English) who collected them and pinned them in the dictionary so John Reynolds could release them like little white helium-filled balloons.

Image source: Craig Potton.

Due to a technical glitch, my review of Our Favourite Poems: New Zealanders choose their favourite poems didn't make it into the electronic edition of A Fine Line. Here's the full review:

Our Favourite Poems: New Zealanders choose their favourite poems.
Introduction by Iain Sharp.
Craig Potton Publishing. $24.99

In 1995, the British television programme The Bookwork asked viewers to name their favourite poem and was inundated with thousands of replies. When the cloud of postcards and emails settled The Bookwork collated the results and an anthology of the top one hundred poems called The Nation’s Favourite Poems was published. Back in July 2007 Craig Potton Publishing decided to publish a similar anthology and asked the public through the Sunday Star-Times to name their favourite poem. The result is Our Favourite Poems.

I know some poets are tired of the current enthusiasm for anthologies. They worry that the single volume of work is falling out of favour with the reading public as the anthology gains ascendancy. Just look at the market: there are anthologies about death, pets, parenting, Auckland, Wellington, Antarctica and even a Science Fiction poetry anthology. But I like anthologies: they make good gifts, reach a new readership, and make lesser demands on the reader. An anthology, especially an anthology focused on a genre or theme, can allow the reader to see the numerous possibilities presented by a particular subject. Andrew Johnston’s excellent anthology Moonlight delivers great pleasure from thorough reading, as does Mark Pirie and Tim Jones’ recent Voyagers: Science Fiction poetry from New Zealand.

What can be learnt from reading Our Favourite Poems carefully, as opposed to just dipping in? Iain Sharp’s introduction tries to tease out any lessons. New Zealanders when compared to their British counterparts like a number of North American writers: Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Frost, Harry Wadsworth Longfellow, Maya Angelou, Billy Collins, e.e. cummings and Emily Dickinson make our top 100 countdown. Twenty-five of the poems are by New Zealanders including great poems by James K. Baxter, Bill Manhire, Denis Glover, Margaret Mahy and Hone Tuwhare’s ‘Rain’ which comes in at number 1. There are five local entries in the top ten. Sharp rightly acknowledges that despite the dominance of open form, rhyme and rhythm are still vital components of many popular poems.

One lesson I took from the selection was the power of childhood exposure to poetry in forming our sensibilities—teachers still play a role in shaping the nation’s tastes. I like the nonsense and light verse in the anthology: Margaret Mahy, Spike Milligan, Roger McGough are all great fun and while I can almost appreciate the naive charm of Pam Ayres’ ‘Oh, I wished I’d looked after me teeth’ I wish that some of Tusiata Avia’s poems had kicked Pam out of the charts (if more teachers taught ‘My Dog’ then her place would be rightly secured). Some poets are conspicuously absent: I’m surprised that Sylvia Plath’s gothic sensibilities didn’t make it or that Wallace Stevens’ blackbirds and William Carlos Williams’ red wheelbarrow and chilled plums are nowhere to be found.
Have we had enough of anthologies? I’ve been thinking about how great it would be to have an anthology of New Zealand Horror/Gothic poems, so obviously I haven’t had my fill. At present, the International Institute of Modern Letters publish an online collection of Best New Zealand Poems—what about a ‘Reader’s Choice’ poetry award for New Zealand poems? Could a push for more local poetry perhaps encourage The Listener to go back to publishing a poem every week? We can only hope.

posted by harvey molloy @ 1:29 PM 3 Comments

Thursday, July 02, 2009

Albatross 20

The print copy of Albatross 20 arrived in the post this week. This edition of Albatross, edited and published by Richard Smyth, includes a fantastic line-up of poetry by Lyn Stefenhagens, LisaMarie Brodsky, Joan Colby, Roger Desy, Melissa Holm, William Keener, Linda King, Mitch LesCarbeau, Michael S. Lewis-Beck, Paula Sanders McCarron, W. Dale Nelson, Sherry O'Keefe, Tom Sexton, Michael Shorb, Kim Triedman and Fredrick Zydeck.

Albatross is looking for new poets and if you're an artist working in ink then Albatross welcomes submissions for cover art. Albatross is now a Facebook group and you can join by searching Facebook for Albatross Poetry Group.

I wonder if Facebook is the new Blogger. My blog is now more focussed than ever before on my writing. It's never been much of a chatty blog. Facebook reminds me of a personalised Usenet group (for verily, I was online BTW: Before the Web) only unlike Usenet the community is a community of people you've mainly had some contact with IRL. Facebook for me now is a little like a newsletter bulletin written by my friends. I come home, log on, and see what's been happening--this is very similar to how I was reading blogs anyway, only blogs have a more stable, journal quality. I'm blogging less but on Facebook everyday and I'm happy with this balance. The new writing seems to require even more time.

Obviously, I'm still blogging and reading blogs. This week I came across Denis Welch's blog for the first time.



The holidays begin soon and I want to try my hand at writing a short drama. I saw an abridged production of Vivienne's Plumb's The Cape at school and was very moved and impressed by the performance and the script. I have a copy of the play and it's essential holiday reading for me. One more day and then I get to sleep in!

Image source: Playpress.

posted by harvey molloy @ 9:10 PM 2 Comments

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Closer in BMP 25

My poem 'Closer' will be appearing in the upcoming issue of Blackmail Press. This is my third publication in BMP: it's great to be in the next issue as BMP is online, available to all, and has a wide range of new and established voices from diverse backgrounds.

'Closer' was difficult to write and I have many versions of the poem. I started the first version over three and half years ago, long before the movie Control brought Ian Curtis' death back into popular culture. If I look very far back, then a piece published in Salient in 1980/1981 called 'The division of joy' is also linked to the poem (although they are in other ways poles apart). I know it can be tiresome to talk about one's own writing, I generally avoid it, but I've noticed a slight shift since Moonshot in some of my poems in that they have voices that are not quite my own and which I find 'unsettling' (or is that too dramatic, too strong?) When you read 'Closer' you will probably wonder what I'm going on about. Thanks to the editors Sarah Jane Barnett and Bill Nelson for noticing one little tweak that really helped the poem.

Source: NZEPC

Have you seen the Phantom Billstickers Poetry posters around town? I went walking with my son Rohan in Newtown and we saw a Tusiata Avia's 'Cheek' and Michael White's 'There was a time' on Riddiford Street and I loved them. I mean, how great is that to see poetry in the street? I got this rush of excitement from them, like good music; they looked so immediate and lively. I'm playing Avia's 'My Dog' to some students tomorrow--I'm playing them about four NZ poets. When I really love a poem I feel that in some way that I own it; I think that's common with what we love. That's why it's good for the poems to be out on the street; they are our poems written by these poets.

If you feel inspired to write then the Bravado poetry competition is on and the deadline is the end of August.

The Voyagers anthology continues to get press coverage with a good piece in this weekend's Dominion Post on the anthology. Tim Jones has good coverage of this and news of the yearly Montana Book Awards gripes. I do feel that the $100 fee for publishers to enter books for the poetry competition is skewering the award nominations. However, on reflection, it's not such a hefty fee and it's up to the small presses to tell Booksellers NZ, who are reviewing the awards, if they feel shut out. I'd like to know if the University Presses ask their poets to fork out for their own entry fees. University Presses do a lot to support and encourage poetry in NZ but the Montana nominations do give the impression that the only good poetry comes from a university press when other vibrant presses also publish good work.

It's late and time to turn in. Not long now until the new Minuit CD comes out.

posted by harvey molloy @ 7:46 PM 0 Comments

Sunday, June 07, 2009

Ghosts of St James/Broadsheet 3


Riemke Ensing

Photo: James Ensing-Trussell / TOPIC.

Broadsheet 3 is now available online in PDF format for free at Headworx.

Here you'll find my poem 'Ghosts of St. James'; one of the new poems that fit into the 'post Moonshot' project I'm writing (provisional title Flies and Gods though this will not be the final title). Others poems in this in series include 'Il est Minuit' (published in Brief), the three poems that appeared in Blackmail Press in December and 'Corporate Identity' (published in Albatross 20).

Work has been much busier than usual and so the small time I set aside each day (even if I get up before dawn) has been spent working on a batch of new poems and putting together publicity matrial for the Palmerston North reading. I had my third cold of the year that was nasty but mercifully quick. I'm working on new poems and they do feel different and they require attention. My writing began to change when I realised that I couldn't put it off any longer and that I just had to keep writing on a regular basis and so that's what I do even if I lose out on sleep. At times it's frustrating because I really would like more time to write as writing takes time.

I have finished another short review for A Fine Line on Our Favourite Poems: New Zealanders select their favourite poems, edited by Iain Sharp, and I can see the value of such a book for bringing poetry to new, especially younger, readers. I'm still disappointed that The Listener hasn't gone back to publishing a poem every week. I know that magazines are commercial ventures and can publish really what they like but as a reader of The Listener I am disappointed. Every week I would turn to that poem wondering 'whose got in?' and 'is it good'? And I'd enjoy that feeling. I've had two poems published by The Listener and I liked the way that they've gone out all around the country. The weekly stab at a wide audience has gone and I believe that all poets and all readers have lost out. There's no poem in this week's issue.

It's been good to swap emails with Riemke Ensing over in Auckland. I enjoyed her poem 'Matariki' in Broadsheet- I like the idea of a person planting a tree each time one of her friends dies, a tree that represents their background. It's a very understated, elegant poem dedicated to Bernard Gadd who dies in 2007.

And the Poetry Society AGM is coming . . .

NZPS Monthly Poetry Readings, Wellington

Monday 15 June, 7.30pm
The Thistle Inn, 3 Mulgrave St
There will be no guest poet this month. The Annual General Meeting will take place, followed by a mini-workshop for those attending the AGM. This will be run by the National Coordinator, Laurice Gilbert, and there will be no charge (but you have to attend the AGM to qualify).

posted by harvey molloy @ 10:03 PM 4 Comments

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Broadsheet 3/Voyagers



Broadsheet 3 arrive in the mailbox this week and along with my poem 'Ghosts of St James' there are poems by Riemke Ensing, Tim Jones, Wanjiku Kiarie, Richard Langston, Will Leadbeater, Rachel McAlpine, James Norcliffe, John O'Connor, Peter Olds, Jenny Powell, Laura Solomon, Barbara Strang, and Paul Wolfram. The issue features a reprint of a taped conversation between Alistair Paterson and Robert Creeley in New Mexico in 1982. It's great to hear Creeley's enthusiasm for Curnow's work (give that Curnow's sensibilities are far from Creeley's own). I love the clean simplicty of Broadsheet's design which really draws attention to the poetry.
Voyagers: Science Fiction Poetry from New Zealand also arrived in a busy week of teaching by day and stage managing a school musical at night. Here are the contents of Voyagers taken from Tim Jones' Books in the Trees.

The general themes of the sections are: "Back to the Future" - time travel. "Apocalypse Now" - apocalypses, nuclear and otherwise. "Altered States" - robots and other non-human, or transformed, life forms. "ET" - aliens. "When Worlds Collide" - astronomy, and the beginning stages of space exploration. "The Final Frontier" - life and exploration in deep space.

Introduction

Back to the Future

Anna Rugis, the poetry of the future
Louis Johnson, To a Science-Fiction Writer
A.R.D. Fairburn, 2000 A.D.
Janet Charman, in your dreams
Bill Sewell, Utopia
Alistair Paterson, Time traveller
David Gregory, Einstein’s Theory Simply Explained
Jenny Powell with John Dolan, Note to the Aliens
Raewyn Alexander, in the future when we grow new brains
Alan Brunton, F/S
Harvey Molloy, Nanosphere (that's me, folks).
Meliors Simms, Two Kinds of Time
Jack Perkins, Out of Time
Jacqueline Crompton Ottaway, Black Hole
Tim Jones, Good Solid Work

Apocalypse Now

John Dolan, The Siege of Dunedin
David Eggleton, Overseasia
Alistair Te Ariki Campbell, Looking at Kapiti
Bill Sewell, The World Catastrophe
Rachel McAlpine, Satellites
David Eggleton, 60-Second Warning
Meg Campbell, The End of the World
Vivienne Plumb, The Last Day of the World
Louis Johnson, Four Poems from the Strontium Age
Michael O’Leary, Nuclear Family – A Fragment
Ruth Gilbert, Still Centre
Fleur Adcock, Last Song
Rob Jackaman, from Lee: A Science Fiction Poem
Marilyn Duckworth, Thin Air
Fiona Kidman, An aftermath
Kevin Ireland, Instructions About Global Warming

Altered States

Iain Sharp, Karen Carpenter Calls Interplanetary Craft
Gordon Challis, The Thermostatic Man
Trevor Reeves, they’re keeping tabs
Mary Cresswell, Metastasis
Simon Williamson, Japan 2030
Tony Beyer, Kron
Louis Johnson, Love Among the Daleks
Seán McMahon, planet one
Janis Freegard, Beside the Laughing Kitchen
Thomas Mitchell, Rituals
Alan Brunton, Vis Imaginitiva
Harvey McQueen, After the Disaster
Jenny Argante, Space Age Lover
Chris Else, Hypnogogia
James Norcliffe, the ascent
Fleur Adcock, from "Gas"

ET

Vivienne Plumb, Signs of Activity
Michael Morrissey, UFOs in Autumn
Andrew Fagan, A Spaceship Has Landed Near Nuhaka
Dana Bryce, Dreams of Alien Love
Tracie McBride, Contact
Cliff Fell, In Truth or Consequences
Nelson Wattie, The Art of Translation
Phil Kawana, This machine kills aliens
Michael Morrissey, Are the Andromedans Like Us
Mark Pirie, Dan and His Amazing Cat
James Dignan, Great Minds
Cath Randle, The Purple fantastic, feels like elastic, spangled and plastic ray gun
Jane Matheson, An Alien’s Notes on first seeing a prunus-plum tree
Harvey McQueen, Return
Owen Marshall, Awakening
Peter Bland, An Old Man and Science Fiction

When Worlds Collide

Katherine Liddy, Crab Nebula
Anna Jackson, Death Star
Stephen Oliver, Manned Mission to the Green Planet
Hilaire Kirkland, Three Poems
Michael O’Leary, Hey man, Wow! [Jimi Hendrix]
Robin Fry, Lift-off
Tim Jones, Touchdown
Tim Jones, The First Artist on Mars
Puri Alvarez, Saturn’s Rings
Robert Sullivan, from Star Waka
Chris Pigott, 'We’re thinking of going into space'
Mark Pirie, Liam Going
Iain Britton, Departing Takaparawha
Bill Sewell, The Imaginary Voyage
Rachel Bush, Voyagers
Stephen Oliver, Letter to an Astronomer

The Final Frontier

Helen Rickerby, Tabloid Headlines
Sue Wootton, the verdigris critic
Richard von Sturmer, from "Mill Pond Poems"
Brian Turner, Earth Star
Gary Forrester, The Thirst That Can Never Be Slaked
David Kārena-Holmes, Your Being
John Dolan, In Which I Materialize, Horribly Maimed, in the Transporter Room of the Enterprise
Mark Pirie, The Rescue Mission
Tze Ming Mok, Lament of the imperfect copy of Ensign Harry Kim
Nic Hill, Somewhere Else
Tim Jones, The stars, Natasha
Mike Webber, My Personal Universe
Bill Sewell, Space & Time

You can buy Voyagers from Amazon.com as a paperback or Kindle e-book, or from Fishpond in New Zealand. You can also find out more about Voyagers, and buy it directly from the publisher, at the Voyagers mini-site.

posted by harvey molloy @ 11:04 PM 1 Comments