harvey's journal

Poetry in schools

2009-11-07T12:01:00.012+13:00

A previous year's winner's entry is sung.

This morning I read, to my disappointed, in the IIML's newsletter that New Zealand Post will no longer sponsor the National Schools Poetry Award and the National Schools Poetry Festival. I can only guess that NZ Post must be facing the financial crunch. This year at school I started a lunchtime creative writing club and for the small number of students who joined the competition provided a focus and goal, especially the song writing category which was a brilliant idea. I just hope that NZ Post has had the good sense not to solely measure the success of the competition by the number of competition entrants. I know a few young writers who wrote poems and song lyrics with an eye to the competition but who decided at the last moment not to submit their entries. And that's fine. Like other writers, they used the competition as a goal to produce their work. These competition and festivals allow talented students to aim for something which is outside of routine school work.

I've been flat out at school but still keep my own writing up because I feel better after writing. Poetry takes me out of myself and my daily concerns. I'm working on a translation of an Wulf and Eadwacer and I've trawled the Web teasing the mysteries of ungelic. Ah, if only I had a subscription to Questia so I could finish reading that article. I'm really working on two versions of the poem: one an attempt to be as faithful as I can to the original and one which gives my own imagination and reading of the poem room to play. I've started to read 'ungelic' as 'ill-matched' (very Shakespearean, I know) because I have a feeling that this is what the poet means even though there's no solid evidence for this reading --although that's not to say that it's not open to this translation! I'm that I studies Old English as an undergrad and then again at Post Graduate level at UF and I'm grateful to the excellent teachers I had at both Victoria University and the University of Florida. (I really did get sort of lost in Anglo-Saxon again and spent quite a lot of enjoyable hours wrestling with it). Despite Woody Allen's advice in Annie Hall to "never take a course where they make you read Beowulf", I've found that Old English has given much pleasure over the ye in Gainesville ars.

Image source: Loop 2005

Fair Trade/Delph Whit Friday

2009-10-31T20:08:00.011+13:00

I've been a long time supporter of Fair Trade and Trade Aid and I've noticed that much more companies and businesses are now working to give the workers who produce much of our coffee and chocolate a fair deal. Take coffee: Fair Trade coffee was once only available at Trade Aid shops, then came Hummingbird Organic coffee and now Caffe L'affare's Primo beans are now Fair Trade. According to Oxfam, NZ has one of the fastest growth rates for sales of Fairtrade products: up 50% since 2007. Some Fair Trade products though are not so easy to get now; I used to wear my No Sweat sneakers with pride and they were greatly admired by students at my last school who took them for Converse Chuck Taylors. Perhaps they will come back soon. I'd really like to know who made my shoes and their working conditions before I buy them.

Here's 'Delph Whit Friday' which appeared in this month's Lancashire Life along with a little blurb about me and Moonshot. Del, an old childhood friend of mine, read Moonshot and did me a favour by connecting me with Lancashire Life. The poem's a bit nostalgic but then many immigrants who move in their teens find that the home country has become the place of childhood to which they can never return.

Delph Whit Friday

A clear sky hails arcs
of dry split peas and rice
from the silver shooters we blow
like flutes from candied lips.

It’s just gone three
and our kid’s kaylied already
from the Party Six
and how could it be that she
let my lips brush her cheek in the graveyard
just after she asked ‘Which church are you’?
As if I even knew.

This Friday the whole village is dressed in their finest
and nobody works. Look!
The red faced trombonist has lost his rag
and rushes towards a lippy scrag of a lad
who gives him the fingers and a face full of grain
and who just happens to be me.

a busy week

2009-10-24T22:50:00.018+13:00

Delph, Whit Friday

This has been a very full, very pleasant week. On Monday I attended two poetry events, the Voyagers reading at the Wellington City Library featuring poets from the Voyagers anthology ( I read 'Nanosphere' and 'Sea of Rains') which was followed and hour or so later by a meeting of the Poetry Society where Helen Rickerby gave a great reading from her new work and poems from My Iron Spine. Helen's reading used Powerpoint slides which complemented the reading well. At the open mike I recited Caedmon's Hymn from memory which I memorised as Ph.D student in Marie Nelson's wonderful Old English course at the University of Florida.

On Tuesday, being somewhat eager read and support Voyagers (truth is I love to read poetry and have no immediate poetry gigs in sight) I drove up to the lovely new Paraparaumu Library to read with Kapiti Voyager poets, including Michael O'Leary. It's a sunny library and a good reading venue. On Friday, I found that my poem 'Delph, Whit Friday' along with a little spiel about me and a pic appeared in the November issue of Lancashire Life and this gave me a real kick as my family back in Lancashire can all read the poem. It's these little boosts of pleasure from publication that keep me writing. That and an admittedly somewhat obsessive interest in poetry. I was pleased that the audience on Monday night enjoyed Caedmon's Hymn. It's good to memorise poems because that way the words get under your skin; mind you, I did make a couple of slips: it's 'foldu', not 'foldum',and I'm sure that there were others, but never mind.

Poem for today: Caedmon's Hymn.

Image source: Brass Bands Saddleworth.

Delph

2009-10-18T11:19:00.010+13:00

Delph Bridge

Until returning for sixth months (or perhaps a year) to live in the notorious Sholver housing estate, before emigrating to New Zealand I was fortunate to live for four years or so in the small village of Delph, in Saddleworth. Delph was small, rural, quiet and very beautiful to my young boy's eyes. I would often spend time just following the river Tame as it wound through the village. The bridge mentioned in my poem 'Closer' is, in my mind's eye, the bridge in the photograph above. (That's not to say that this is the bridge; it's my bridge in the poem, not the dear reader's). I'm hoping that a new poem, 'Delph, Whit Friday' will appear soon in the UK magazine Lancashire Life, along with a short piece on Moonshot. This opportunity is due to an old friend giving my work much appreciated support back in the north.

I have a busy poetry week coming up. I'm driving up the coast this afternoon to Paekakariki for the launch of Helen's Heath book Watching for Smoke. This will be an opportunity to take a break from marking and catch up with some old poetry friends. The design of the book from Seraph is a testament to the creativity and ingenuity present in New Zealand small presses who are more free to be concerned with really enhancing the poet's poetry rather than understandably maintaining a sort of brand or design identity. Tomorrow we have the first Voyagers reading in Wellington at the library at 5.30 PM followed by Helen Rickerby reading at the Poetry Society at 7.30 PM. On Tuesday we have the Voyagers reading over at the Kapiti library. This should be lots of fun and a bit of a first; I wonder if we are the first non-politically 'themed' poetry reading tour in New Zealand?

Poems for today: Isabella, Helen Heath.
Grows on trees. Helen Rickerby.
The wild iris. Louise Glück

Image source: The Boarshurst Centre, Saddleworth.

re-make, re-model

2009-10-10T16:48:00.008+13:00

How long will blogs last in the ecology of the net? When I first got online, via Actrix (Telecom wasn't even a USP then!), Usenet was the place to be. I remember hanging out in Lambda Moo, going to the Well; ah, those were heady pre-Web days. Then I had a sort of website going on a development server (I taught myself basic HTML by pinching and tweaking code) and then in Singapore my friend and colleague Kati put me onto Blogger. With Facebook, though, I can see a shift in the ecology of the net: social networking sites bite into the amount of time we spend onscreen. In other words--time on Facebook reduces the power of the blog. And I haven't even mentioned Twitter. But blogs do provide a permanent record and you can find them via Google. Something in their favour at least.

I'm going to try to make the blog a little more personal this year to beef it up a bit. It's hard to do because I'm also trying to write poetry and there are only so many hours in the day. The photo above is a picture of Browning Road, Oldham, close to where my Grandad and Grandma Molloy used to live. Forgive me the telegraphic style. I only have so much time.

I was shocked by two pieces of news this week: the death of Leigh Davis (author of Willy's Journal) and hearing that Adam Yauch in the Beastie Boys has cancer. My condolences to Leigh's family and my best wishes to Adam.

Poems of the week: Robert Mclean's work in the latest Jaam and Louise Glück.

Voyager open mike

2009-10-07T21:14:00.004+13:00

The virus rings in my ears. I'm tired and it's cold outside. I get up in the early morning and start on the paperwork. Driving to school I notice white plastic bags have rolled out of their tipped open green plastic bins and onto the kerb. There's quite a few bags on the street. I stop the car and put one bag back in a green bin. I can't be stuffed doing the rest so I get back into the warm car and drive on.

This from Tim Jones:

We have decided to have an open mike session at those Voyagers Book Tour events at which we don't have lots of Voyagers poets reading. So, if you are going to the Dunedin, Christchurch, Kapiti Coast or Devonport events, bring some speculative poetry of your own (science fiction, fantasy, horror, or generally non-realistic), and you should get a chance to read as well as listen!

Back to me:

It was great to see a favorable review by David Larsen of Voyagers in The Listener. Larsen gets the whole 'reframing' or 'shock of the new' that comes not just from SF/Fantasy poetry (a shock I love) but also from breaking the conventional frames or narratives we used to view the literary canon or, as Larsen puts it: "... this capacity to make us pay fresh attention to people, to ideas, to images, even to individual nouns and verbs, is something the anthology demonstrates again and again."

Narratives with Nosh

2009-10-04T23:17:00.004+13:00

I was talking to my sister Jayne in Otaki on the phone and the hail was pounding on the window here in Karori. Where has all this weather come from? The family laugh at me for blogging this so late, especially as I've been on and off the computer all day writing poetry, mucking around on Facebook, reading an article on Beckett written by my friend Paul, making the kids crumpets and miso (they wanted both) always pottering around doing something, a little restlessness, not that good really at doing nothing, really.

I have a poem 'Diwali' in this collection:

LAUNCH OF NARRATIVES WITH NOSH
Wednesday October 28th 6 pm No 1 The Strand, Tauranga

OUR 2009 PUBLISHING PROJECT to raise funds for young writers (18-23) in the Bay. Narratives with Nosh is a compilation of stories about food with the recipes and includes contributions from writers in the Bay and beyond. Editor Margaret Beverland will host the evening. If you're a contributor and you want to read, please let us know! You can also pick up your free copy on the night. (Note generous discount for pre-ordering extra copies - the perfect Christmas gift - only $15! Until the end of New Zealand Book Month October 31st.) Free, so bring along family and friends and urge them to buy, buy, buy.

Tauranga Writers, PO Box 13 533 Central Tauranga, 3141

Voyagers Press release

2009-09-29T20:18:00.003+13:00

So much rain today: I was reminded of Gainesville, Florida. That feeling of swimming pools of water waiting to fall. A beautiful winding drive to Ruakuri caves and then to Waitomo. The sense of time in Waitomo, a century for every centimeter that rock flows from ceiling to floor and it's an ancient sea floor, pushed up. And then the glow worms, their utterly bizarre lifecycles, insects that look like stars to trap wanderers from the forest or even their older, flying selves. Our last night here in New Plymouth before heading off to Rotorua (we wanted to come back rather than make the trip on the day and given the rain I'm glad).

The Unexpected in an Unexpected Form

IP presents Voyagers: Science Fiction Poetry from New Zealand

Speculative poetry! Never before has a unique anthology like this been released, and New Zealand is leading the way.

Voyagers is where poetry meets the essence of science fiction: aliens, space travel, time travel and the end of the world - as well as concepts you may not previously have thought of as science fiction. The result is a brilliant insight into the world of science fiction that will have the reader speculating right along with the poets.

Voyagers will be launched on a tour of the country at events in Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington, Paraparaumu, Auckland and Devonport from 14-24 October.

The tour will feature some of New Zealand’s most well-known names: highly acclaimed and award winning poets such as Alistair Paterson, Raewyn Alexander, James Dignan, Meg Campbell, Iain Britton, Rachel McAlpine, Harvey Molloy, Adcock, Michael O’Leary, Stephen Oliver, Jenny Argante, Michael Morrissey, Sue Wootton, Michael O’Leary, Andrew Fagan, Jenny Powell. Marilyn Duckworth, Helen Rickerby, Thomas Mitchell, Janet Charman, Anna Rugis, James Norcliffe, David Gregory and Owen Marshall among others.

Wellington-born writer, editor, publisher and critic Mark Pirie is one of the editors of the anthology. Pirie initiated, co-edited and produced the literary magazine JAAM (Just Another Art Movement) from 1995-2005, and currently edits the HeadworX New Poetry Series and the poetry journal broadsheet, as well as co-organises the annual Winter Readings in Wellington.

Tim Jones, the other editor, is also a poet, short story writer and novelist. His most recent books include the short story collection Transported (Vintage, 2008), which was longlisted for the 2008 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award; the poetry collection All Blacks’ Kitchen Gardens (HeadworX, 2007); and the fantasy novel Anarya’s Secret (RedBrick, 2007).

The new publication follows hot on the heels of IP's first New Zealand releases Harmonic by Stephen Oliver and the Text + Audio CD by Stephen Oliver and Matt Ottley King Hit. Based in Brisbane, IP is Australia's most innovative independent publisher. It publishes about 24 titles per year and is one of the few independents regularly supported by the Australia Council.

IP’s Director, the noted author Dr David Reiter, whose most recent books are Primary Instinct, a satire on the education system, and the children’s novel Global Cooling, will spearhead the tour, which will also showcase New Zealand authors Iain Britton's new poetry collection Liquefaction and Euan McCabe's sports memoir The World Cup Baby.

For more information regarding Voyagers or to schedule an interview before the tour begins, please email info@ipoz.biz or call +61 (0)7 3324 9319. During the tour, Dr Reiter can be contacted via SMS to his mobile +61 (0)412 313 923 or email to reiterdr1@me.com.

Confirmed Dates & Venues

14 Oct: Dunedin Library, 5:30 pm

15 Oct: Circadian Rhythm Café (Dunedin), 7 pm

16 Oct: Madras Café (Christchurch), 5 pm

19 Oct: Wellington Central Library, 5:30 pm

20 Oct: Paraparaumu Library (Kapiti Coast), 5:30 pm

22 Oct: Auckland Central Library, 5:30 pm

24 Oct: Depot Artspace (Devonport), 6:30 pm

Voyagers at Kapiti

2009-09-27T22:49:00.003+13:00

Where I'm calling from

The Voyager poets will read at Kapiti Library on Tuesday, 20 Oct from 5:30 pm. So I'm now reading twice in October which is pretty good as I enjoy reading. I'm on holiday at present in New Plymouth at One Burgess Hill and I've been enjoying walking near the astounding maunga Taranaki, reading Bill Byrson's short, highly readable book on Shakespeare and doing a little writing. I'm going to keep this short as Rohan wants to hop on the net. I can hear the Waiwhakakaiho from the rental apartments we're in and it sends me to sleep very quickly. We're having a good time here.

BMP 25 launch. Voyagers tour.

2009-09-21T20:56:00.007+12:00

Falling through time

The BMP 25 launch went very well at the Thistle Inn last week. We had a great turn out and by the time the reading was on the way we had standing room only at the back. We had fine readings from Lorraine Singh, Pat White, Janis Freegard, Cameron Griffith, Lynn Davidson and Rachel O’neill and speeches from Sarah Jane Barnett and Bill Nelson. I particularly enjoyed Helen Rickerby’s poem 'The happiness of Mary Shelley' for three voices; she was accompanied by Shaun Molloy and a friend who read the part of Victor Frankenstein and the monster. I read the poem ‘Closer’ and Mc-ed the evening.Many thanks to Sarah Jane Barnett, Bill Nelson and all who read and attended.

At the reading, Helen gave me my subscriber’s copy of the flash new Jaam 27. Rachel Walker’s image Falling through time and Anna Brown’s excellent cover design (that simple, lovel I’m going to continue reading through the whole issue over the holidays (I take it slow reading an author or two a night). Helen had a copies of Issue 19 and 20 of Miriam Barr’s poetry zine Sidestream which features poems by new writers as well as established writers such as Vincent O’Sullivan (who published widely and reaches a very broad audience: something to pay attention to when considering the next poet laureate. Good one, Vincent).

At the reading, I also picked up a copy of Pat White’s Planting the Olives & other essential acts and as I’m not that familiar with Pat or his work I’ll be reading this over the holidays. I like meeting poets at poetry readings: we are surrounded by bloody poets and writers here in Wellington! In Singapore there was nothing, or, more accurately, nothing I could easily notice that resembled a live poetry scene.

There’s another Voyagers reading coming up so if you feel like hearing some poetry come along to the Wellington City Library on:

WELLINGTON

Wellington Library, 5:30pm on Monday 19 Oct

(Note from Tim: this is a couple of hours before Helen Rickerby is the guest reader at that night's New Zealand Poetry Society meeting. Make a poetry night of it!). I'll be reading 'Nanosphere.' Full details of the Voyagers NZ book tour are over at Book in the Trees.

BMP 25: The Rebel Issue/Speculative fiction

2009-09-04T22:29:00.015+12:00

Art by Mephisto Jones

Black Mail Press 25: The Rebel issue has now gone live. There's work (among others) by Pip Adam, Ruth Arnison, Hinemoana Baker, Brenda Ann Burke, Lynn Davidson, Janis Freegard, Joan Fleming, Siobhan Harvey, Mariana Isara, Helen Rickerby, Lorraine Singh, Sam Searle, Laura Solomon, Pat White, Hayden Williams, Ashleigh Young, cool art by Mephisto Jones, and my own poem 'Closer' addressed to Ian Curtis.

Tim Jones and Helen Lowe are talking about speculative fiction on Thursday September 17 and I'm hoping to make it there. Tim's been included in the upcoming Penguin Book of Contemporary Short Stories evidence of the fruits of his hard work as a writer and the of the important shift in thinking that sees speculative fiction not as a marginal literature but as a seminal current in the culture. And happy father's day to all the dads.

BMP Press launch invite

2009-08-29T22:32:00.006+12:00

Blackmail Press

Presents The Rebel issue

Please join us for an evening of poetry, which will begin with an open microphone session and be followed by a selection of readings from the current Rebel issue.

Wellington launch: Wed, Sept 16, 2009 - 7.30pm

Upstairs Thistle Inn,

3 Mulgrave Street, Thorndon, Wellington.

It's all go. . . the readers are ready . . .the editors are ready . . . I'm sort of ready to read my new poem 'Closer' and so we'll be there on the night.

This morning I attended a packed session with Bill Manhire for secondary school teachers at the International Institute of Modern Letters. His workshop on creative writing (which he said was very similar to the talk he gave at the WRATE conference) was highly entertaining and stimulating. Bill encouraged teachers to recognise the importance of 'theft' and imitation in creativity: we all start by borrowing and copying. This should be the basis of teaching of creative writing rather than a romantic notion of striving for an original voice. He presented us with a number of exercises for use in the classroom. All of this was presented free of educational jargon or the wretched Powerpoint which plagues so much discussion of secondary education. It was clear, crisp, precise. The workshop ended with teachers swapping anecdotes and concerns and all in all it was a great way to spend a lovely spring morning.

Poets for Princess Ashika

2009-08-26T19:50:00.001+12:00

Poets for Princess Ashika: Love, Loss and the Sea
Fundraiser for the victims of the Princess Ashika Ferry Disaster in Tonga

2pm Saturday, 5 September

Paekakariki Memorial Hall, The Parade (next to Campbell Park)

Paekakariki

Koha entry

Karlo Mila - Apirana Taylor - David Geary - Glenn Colquhoun

and Te Roopu Kapa Haka o Paekakariki

A rare opportunity to hear four of New Zealand's best contemporary poets and writers

Afternoon tea. Bring some biccies if you can! Gold coin raffle.

Contact: Helen Keivom 9057178

I can't go due to a previous family engagement. All my best to them.

Voyagers Reading

2009-08-22T16:53:00.004+12:00

The Voyagers reading went well with a good audience--although it must be said that the audience was mainly composed of readers and their friends! The evening was dedicated to Alistair Campbell who died on Monday. I always introduce secondary students to some of Campbell's work and I've admired some of his versification (he had a way of splitting a line over three lines and interlacing these lines to produce a very entrancing pattern). There's a full, more detailed account of the reading over at Tim Jones's blog. In my small free time, I've been trying to write this poem I've been stuck on for a while. I started to make some good progress this week on attempt four. Sometimes you have to come at the poem from the side and create angles. Work has gobbled enormous energy this week and I'm waiting for a space when I can write for longer spells. I've also been reading Alan Loney's blog, especially his thoughts on the lyric.

Bravado 16/Voyagers reading line up

2009-08-16T12:23:00.009+12:00

Bravado cover by Janet Keen.

Bravado 16 arrived in the mail on Friday and features Latika Vasil's story 'Jelly' along with short fiction by Janis Freegard and David Hill and others. The issue also has new poetry by Sue Fitchett, Peter Branson, Helen Lehndorf, Vaughan Rapatahana, Isaac Pressnell and Karen Zelas to mention just a few. There's also a favourable brief review of Moonshot from Tim Upperton. (I've had three reviews so far and all are favourable). Great, I'm looking ahead to the new work now.

I'll be reading with the Voyagers poets tomorrow. Here's some information, blatantly stolen from Tim Jones:

Voyagers: Science Fiction Poetry from New Zealand is making its public debut at the New Zealand Poetry Society monthly meeting in Wellington on Monday 17th August. The meeting, which starts at 7.30pm at Wellington's historic Thistle Inn, will feature local poets with work in Voyagers reading two poems each: one of their own poems from the anthology, and one other poem from the anthology that they particularly like.

The featured poets will include:

Puri Alvarez
Chris Else
Robin Fry
Tim Jones
Rachel McAlpine
Jane Matheson
Harvey Molloy
Michael O'Leary
Mark Pirie
Vivienne Plumb
Helen Rickerby
Mike Webber

I'll be reading 'Nanosphere' and Richard Von Sturmer's 'from Mill Pond Poems.' I'm a great admirer of Richard's poetry.

You can't keep a good writer down. Yes, Neil Gaiman has walked away with the Hugo although, old fashioned as I am, I don't see The Graveyard Book as a SF novel (and , I'm afraid, I still see the Hugos as primarly an SF award which why I much favour the Locus awards over the Hugos). Good on Neil, though. And I know that it's best not to get too hung up on the old categories which are all rapidly fading anyway.

Photo source: Bravado.

The rival/Palmerston Reading/Voyagers

2009-08-09T10:11:00.018+12:00

Helen Lehndorf

My poem The rival is now online up on The Lumiere Reader. Hopefully you get a feel for the design studio.

On Wednesday, I drove up to Palmerston North with Latika for my poetry reading at the Palmerston North Library. Poetry is alive and kicking in PN and there's clearly a regular crowd who turn out to hear a poet and read at the open mike. I was pleased with my reading and I liked the way I was able to talk to some members of the audience before I got up and read. I recognised the convener of this circle of poets, Helen Lehndorf, from her Facebook photo, and she was clearly at ease with the regular crowd of people who read at the open mike. Helen gave me a set of prints and poems from the collaborative 'Eyes in the Skies' project at Square Edge held for National Poetry day. Being a cadging teacher I immediately asked for another one for use at school! The Palmy library even has the vision to host plays, such as the play 'Aalst' that was being performed until the 9th August.

It was also great to meet up with Tim Upperton who read two poems from his new book House on Fire (and there's a good interview with Tim over at Tim Jones' blog). I last saw Tim about twenty two years ago when I was an MA student at Massey completing my dissertation with the grand title of Derrida and The Problem of Authorial Intention (oh the heady theory days of the 80s), Tim was writing a little then and I recall that both of us worked on putting out a student publication of poems called Musings. My contribution to Musings was a dreadful piece of juvenilia called 'Everything is a process'; the title alone makes me groan. Meeting Tim brought all these old times back and I feel a sort of kinship with Tim in that we've just had our first books of poetry published. Tim was also recently interviewed by National Radio's 'Arts on Sunday' programme and you can hear the interview here.

I'm glad I've finished my review for the next issue of A Fine Line on Chris Price's The Blind Singer. Next up aside from writing: the Voyagers reading over at The Thistle Inn on 17 August, 7.30pm.

And I also want to go and see Measure for Measure and Romeo and Juliet double bill over at Bats. And did I mention that I'm playing Thisbe for a school show? Er, yea.

Image source: Palmerston North City Library.

Takahe review

2009-08-01T23:02:00.009+12:00

Cy Mathews in Takahe 66 has given Moonshot a favourable review. I wont quote him but it just gives me a very good feeling to have a reviewer (who doesn't know me from a bar of soap) read and enjoy the poems. I'm pleased to that he's responded well to the visual art poems in the second section. In earlier arrangements I culled these entirely and included more biographical work from my childhood. I wasn't happy because it looked too rigid and I wanted a certain fluidity in the book—you know it's a carefully arranged sequence but it's not a full-blown concept album. I like it when I think of poems in book as tracks. I like the way Tuwhare's books have poems that jump around; Manhire's also good at not having everything totally nailed on the wall so you get a sense of play. Cy's a good editor and he's provided me with some useful comments on some of my new 'post Moonshot' work.

It's been a busy week. I visited Kapiti College and met with their creative writing group there. I could not hope for a more welcoming and friendly bunch of students and staff. The kids were really fired up about their creative writing and it's good to see young 'uns tackling difficult forms such as the novel. I read a couple of poems from Moonshot and then ended with a brief (groan) Powerpoint presentation that I also posted to my wonderhub blog. The audience seemed to like the poems and I liked the atmosphere: all a good warm-up for my poetry reading on Wednesday at Palmerston North library.

I was sad to learn from Ansible that Charles N. Brown, co-founder, editor and contributor, to the much beloved Locus magazine, died in his sleep on a plane. I never met him but I enjoyed his sardonic writing in Locus and his crazy looking face in the convention photos.

I was also sad to hear that a great poetry venue Aunt Daisy's Boathouse had just closed its doors. After the Porriua poetry café closed, poetry in Kapiti shifted to Aunt Daisey's and Lembas and now we're down to Lembas in Raumati Beach. I enjoyed reading at Aunt Daisey's and the place will be missed.

Of course, I'm listening to the new Minuit CD Find me before I die a lonely death.com but I can't handle 1 AM concerts given my working (and writing) schedules. In fact I was so exhausted on Friday that I had to go home and sleep and so didn'tmake their free acoustic set at Real Groovy records. That's tragic, I know. But I'd had a few late night's marking and writing and getting ready for next week's poetry gig (I have worked out the sequence and gone through it in my head) and so after teaching all day I just had to go home and sleep. (I couldn't even finish the paperwork). Ruth Carr now has a blog on her lyrics.

And online Dylan Horrocks has been colouring his wonderful comic 'The Magic Pen' over at Hicksville Comics. You must visit this site.

Voyagers Reading

2009-07-25T16:29:00.014+12:00

The next Wellington meeting of the NZ Poetry Society features poets reading from Voyagers. I'll be reading my poem 'Nanosphere' and probably another selection from the anthology. Voyagers has received good publicity; it's been mentioned in a few national dailies, a weekend paper's giveaway magazine, and has had a couple of mention of the good old National Programme (always a good, steady, reliable supporter of poetry).

Monday 17 August, 7.30pm
The Thistle Inn, 3 Mulgrave St

The meeting will open, as always, with an open mic. Guest poets: Contributors to Voyagers: Science Fiction Poetry from New Zealand. Entry: $2. Sponsor: Creative Communities / Wellington City Council.

We now have a new poet laureate, Cilla McQueen. I think that she'll be a good poet laureate; she's written a good solid body of work and one of her books, Antigravity, made a very strong impression on me in the 80s( I read it quite a few times). Antigravity has minimal punctuation and is very high energy--given how so many New Zealand poets, myself included, have found ourselves writing about science Antigravity was very prescient (hey, it has a SF title, proof enough that Cilla has been thinking outside the box for many years). I love that book. And then her poem 'Doggywobble'; that's a riot of a poem. Just magic.

I was at the National Library when she was announced poet laureate. Good snacks! I met up with a few poetry people, ah, but I'm not going to name drop. I thought there was a relaxed atmosphere at the gathering.

There's more on Cilla at the New Zealand Literature File and at the New Zealand Book Council.

National Poetry Day has been and gone. I didn't really plan for the day and so ended up doing a small improvised poetry reading at school. It was a bit of 'one man band' show really. There's was a small turnout and I sold a few Moonshots (shift that product!) but next year I'll be more organized and try to have the students read poetry and get a spread of NZ poems ready for the day. Still, we did something and a few students said that they liked it afterwards. I didn't keep them too long and you never know if any of them will catch the poetry bug and start enjoying it. Enjoyment is the point of the day. I needed a warm-up before the Palmerston North reading on the 5th anyway.

It's not confirmed but I should be visiting a school soon up on the Kapiti coast to talk with some of their students keen on creative writing. I'm also attending a workshop run by Bill Manhire at the end of the month devised for secondary school teachers and I'm looking forward to developing more activities to encourage young writers.

I'm not going to say too much about the Montana Book Awards. Truth is I'm a little frustarted with them and it's not sour grapes. As many others have noted, they are dominated by University Presses. I've lost a bit of confidence in the Montanas and I'm beginning to feel that we need some other kind of award or at least some fairer selection process. This is no disrespect to the winner, Jenny Bornholdt. It's just that the judges must start to realise that there are other presses out there publishing. Don't get me wrong, if a University Press wanted to publish 'Flies and Gods' (work in progress) then I'd jump at the chance. The University Presses have the resources and will to actively promote their own books. So University Presses are vital to poetry in New Zealand and I'm grateful for that . . . keep on publishing guys. . . but we do need a wider selection of judges on the panels at the very least. Did I say I wasn't going to say much about the Montanas? I'm getting off my soapbox now.

minuit 4

2009-07-19T19:57:00.003+12:00

I'm a yellow, you're a green; only the blues and reds between. I'm a turquoise and you're a pink; together we'll star in our own kitchen sinc. Find me before I get to old. Find me before I just do what I'm told.

And off to the shops I'll skip tomorrow!

minuit 3

2009-07-18T16:37:00.002+12:00

Falling north over Zanzibar in a plane like a midnight star. Will you, will you, take our call? See we're not so European after all. The name on the map is not my home. The forex dealer's Masurati was bought in Rome.

The rival/Lynn Davidson reading

2009-07-16T12:45:00.010+12:00

I've just heard today that poetry editor Amy Brown has accepted my long poem 'The rival' for publication in The Lumière Reader. The poem's part of my new work (provisionally entitled 'Flies and Gods') and includes the phrase 'in order for the flows to escape' (a phrase which appears in Deleuze and Guattari's Anti-Oedipus) which may yet be the name of the one of the sections of the new book. I don't know why but this phrase has stuck in my mind since I tried to read the book. (I'm not even sure I ever finished it). I'll probably read 'The rival' now at the Palmerston North reading next month. I'm pleased that Amy's accepted this as the poem focuses on the design industry and I really wanted a design-orientated publiation such as The Lumière Reader to showcase it.

And coming up next week--

New Zeland Poetry Society
Monday 20 July, 7.30pm
The Thistle Inn, 3 Mulgrave St
This month's guest poet is Lynn Davidson (Kapiti), who will be reading from her new poetry collection, How to live by the sea. The meeting will open, as always, with an open mic. Entry: $2.

Lynn Davidson’s fiction and poetry has appeared in journals and her short fiction has been broadcast on national radio. Davidson has received several grants and fellowships to develop her work, including the 2003 Louis Johnson New Writers' Bursary from Creative New Zealand. She has published collections of poetry, and her novel Ghost Net was released in 2003. Davidson also works as an educator and tutors short fiction and poetry both online and in the classroom.

On Wednesday night, the next Poet Laureate will be announced at The National Library. I'm not sure who the nominees are but if Richard von Sturmer is nominated and wins then I'll be happy.

Poem for today:

Ritual for a new year. Lynn Davidson

minuit 2

2009-07-13T18:24:00.005+12:00

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?

Minuit 1

2009-07-13T11:49:00.005+12:00

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.

Montana Poetry Day Poems

2009-07-11T09:03:00.004+12:00

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/

A House on Fire/Our Favourite Poems

2009-07-08T13:29:00.015+12:00

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.