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
4 Comments:
Thanks for the namecheck for Voyagers, Harvey! I too have thoughts of more anthologies - "New Zealand Fantasy Poetry", "Voyagers Volume 2: The Voyaging", "New Zealand Heavy Metal Poetry" (now that's one I'd love to edit - and I wonder if there has been an anthology of New Zealand poetry about music?).
I hope that anthologies function to introduce readers to particular poets, encouraging the readers to then pick up collections by those poets - but I don't know whether this works. The dominance of anthologies is equally marked in the short story field, however.
For the record, this unnamed poem by Osip Mandelstam is my favourite poem:
Into the distance disappear the mounds of human heads
I dwindle, go unnoticed now
But in affectionate books, in children's games
I shall rise from the dead to say: the sun!
One thing I love about your blog, Harvey, is it gives me this feeling that all of new Zealand is in love with poetry.
And I am so envious that you can just go to a world class institution like Te Papa any old time you feel like it!
My mother's Northumbrian which may explain why I love Caedmon's Hymn (http://http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/369.html).
I appreciate the mention too, Harvey. A heavy boxful of books arrived by courier the other day, and I look at it on the kitchen floor, still not quite convinced it's real.
Look forward very much to your reading here.
Best wishes,
Tim
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