molloy | notebook

Gary Snyder on Ecology and Poetry Pt.1

2012-01-30T21:42:00.005+13:00

I first read Snyder in 1980. I was twenty years old. I was very interested in Buddhism and went to meditation classes and read The Diamond Sutra and the Tao Te Ching and many suttas and sutras. It was through Snyder that I read a great deal of Asian literature and began to see that there are other stories and ways of looking at the world. So I guess I owe him something and besides I did enjoy his sense of the wild even though I lived in the city. Looking back I see how prescient he was about so many of the issues which face us all today.

More poems at Tuesday Poem.

What is this bug?

2012-01-26T19:14:00.010+13:00

False katipo spider

Late last afternoon I was gardening when I saw a False katipo spider. Now, my knowledge of spiders is such that I couldn't readily identify the spider on sight. I knew that it looked like a Katipo spider but without the distinctive red mark on the abdomen. Besides, Katipo are rare and live by the sea. I was fascinated by its shiny jet black belly.

To find the name of the spider I went to 'What is this bug?' one of my favourite reference sites run by Landcare Research. The site is a model of simplicity and I love the drawings that communicative so much. The genius, though, lies in the brilliant architecture. You start with just four categories of bugs: all bugs must be in one of these categories. In no time at all you've found your bug. Go and have a look!

Image source: Landcare Research

How to Grow Poets

2012-01-25T21:22:00.009+13:00

Are you interested in the education of gifted children? I'm looking forward to the Friday 30th and Saturday 31st of March when I'll be attending the NZ Professional Association for Gifted Education Conference at the Amora Hotel in Wellington. The conference promises to focus on three key themes: Maori giftedness, early childhood education for gifted learners and curriculum teaching with gifted learners.

At the conference I'll be giving a 45 minute workshop presentation on 'how to grow poets' which will cover how to start and maintain a successful creative writing group within a school. I'll talk about how schools can encourage students to write poetry. Topics covered include extension exercises, the vital role a poetry competition can play in fostering student work, the role of student leaders and student designers and the importance of visiting writers for maintaining student enthusiasm. I'll focus on my experience running a creative writing group—what's worked and what hasn't worked so well. If you're interested you can find out more about the programme at the GiftEDnz site.

Amy

2012-01-24T13:12:00.004+13:00

Amy

Amy, I’m waiting for the film of your life I’ll watch on a DVD as I can’t afford the movies.
I’ll wait till I can get it for a$4 a week rental.
I’ll watch the extras: the interviews with the actors (not Gaga),
the director, the accent coach, make-up artist, singing coach, tattoo expert.
I’ll hear the director say how she tried to capture you, last of the romantic artists, latest in a line of addicted seers; your father will speak as he always does,
I’ll see that shot of you in the your last month collapsed on a bench outside a Camden pub at 9.30 in the morning, pregnant with a beer gut, lost to it all

Amy, I’m waiting for the movie not to be made, for the dollars not to be laid down,
for the rights not to be sold, the actor not to be tempted by the role, for the cap
to be put on the lens, for the mourning for you and your illness to begin
with a charity concert of Back to Black played by kids on a bottle orchestra of 100,000 Smirnoffs.

Harvey Molloy

I wrote this quickly and without much thought or reflection aside from tweaking the last line.

EEZ Bill Submission to Parliament

2012-01-22T19:11:00.009+13:00

Today I've written my submission on the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Bill.

The Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Bill proposes to manage activities in New Zealand’s Exclusive Economic Zone − the area of sea, seabed and subsoil from 12 to 200 nautical miles offshore − and the Continental Shelf beyond. The activities covered by the Bill include seabed mining, some aspects of petroleum activities, energy generation carbon capture and storage, and marine farming.

The Bill has a number of positive features which include:

Creation of the need for consent in Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and continental shelf that require an assessment of environmental effects.
An expanded role for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)to manage the required consents.
All applications for marine consents to be made publicly available.

The Bill, however, contains some serious shortcomings which could have devastating consequences for future generations of New Zealanders. We must ensure that all legislation protects the environment for our children and grandchildren. These shortcomings include:

The need for sustainability to be a major concern in assessment. This is needed to balance economic development with environmental concerns.
Lack of defined sense of what environmental risks are acceptable. The Bill is vague about the need for biodiversity, sustainability, protection of endangered species, etc.
The need to ensure that polluters pay for the cost—or have insurance to cover the cost—of any major pollution caused by their endeavours.

I found the submission by the Environmental Defence Society to be a great help in bringing the Bill into focus as well information provided by the law firm Russell McVeagh.

Why bother writing a submission? The Bill has to contain some notion of sustainability and biodiversity in assessing environmental impact. We have to think of our children and our grandchildren when we draft legislation. We have tread more carefully.

Submissions must be received by the Local Government and Environment Select Committee by 5:00pm on Friday 27 January 2012.

Information on making a submission is available from the Green Party Aotearoa.

Summer Holiday

2012-01-18T16:22:00.007+13:00

On Monday I returned from a great short holiday in Queenstown. The picture above is a shot of Rohan bungy jumping from Kawarau Gorge which was the first bungy jump to open for business in the world. There's something odd about not only allowing your son to jump from a bridge but also paying a handsome fee for the jump and the accompanying DVD. Still, he earned a Merit endorsement for his NCEA Level 1 and this is what he wanted as a treat. Unlike his Dad he was very cool and relaxed about the jump.

The Fallen Elm by John Clare

2012-01-17T09:36:00.007+13:00

Welcome to the first Tuesday Poem for the year. Today's poem is one I've just read for the first time this week. I heard about the poem in George Monbiot's article on abuses of the word 'freedom': does 'freedom' mean freedom to exploit and abuse? Is 'freedom of speech' the same as 'freedom to pollute'? I've not read much Clare before and so I'm still finding my way into the poem; still it's obvious that Clare really loved and appreciated this tree. There's some good puns here: 'saw' and 'barked' all have more than one sense and the poem has lost none of its relevance. Happy new year!

The Fallen Elm. John Clare

Old elm, that murmured in our chimney top
The sweetest anthem autumn ever made
And into mellow whispering calms would drop
When showers fell on thy many coloured shade
And when dark tempests mimic thunder made--
While darkness came as it would strangle light
With the black tempest of a winter night
That rocked thee like a cradle in thy root--
How did I love to hear the winds upbraid
Thy strength without--while all within was mute.
It seasoned comfort to our hearts' desire,
We felt thy kind protection like a friend
And edged our chairs up closer to the fire,
Enjoying comfort that was never penned.
Old favourite tree, thou'st seen time's changes lower,
Though change till now did never injure thee;
For time beheld thee as her sacred dower
And nature claimed thee her domestic tree.
Storms came and shook thee many a weary hour,
Yet stedfast to thy home thy roots have been;
Summers of thirst parched round thy homely bower
Till earth grew iron--still thy leaves were green.
The children sought thee in thy summer shade
And made their playhouse rings of stick and stone;
The mavis sang and felt himself alone
While in thy leaves his early nest was made.
And I did feel his happiness mine own,
Nought heeding that our friendship was betrayed,
Friend not inanimate--though stocks and stones
There are, and many formed of flesh and bones.
Thou owned a language by which hearts are stirred
Deeper than by a feeling clothed in word,
And speakest now what's known of every tongue,
Language of pity and the force of wrong.
What cant assumes, what hypocrites will dare,
Speaks home to truth and shows it what they are.
I see a picture which thy fate displays
And learn a lesson from thy destiny;
Self-interest saw thee stand in freedom's ways--
So thy old shadow must a tyrant be.
Tnou'st heard the knave, abusing those in power,
Bawl freedom loud and then oppress the free;
Thou'st sheltered hypocrites in many a shower,
That when in power would never shelter thee.
Thou'st heard the knave supply his canting powers
With wrong's illusions when he wanted friends;
That bawled for shelter when he lived in showers
And when clouds vanished made thy shade amends--
With axe at root he felled thee to the ground
And barked of freedom--O I hate the sound
Time hears its visions speak,--and age sublime
Hath made thee a disciple unto time.
--It grows the cant term of enslaving tools
To wrong another by the name of right;
Thus came enclosure--ruin was its guide,
But freedom's cottage soon was thrust aside
And workhouse prisons raised upon the site.
Een nature's dwellings far away from men,
The common heath, became the spoiler's prey;
The rabbit had not where to make his den
And labour's only cow was drove away.
No matter--wrong was right and right was wrong,
And freedom's bawl was sanction to the song.
--Such was thy ruin, music-making elm;
The right of freedom was to injure thine:
As thou wert served, so would they overwhelm
In freedom's name the little that is mine.
And there are knaves that brawl for better laws
And cant of tyranny in stronger power
Who glut their vile unsatiated maws
And freedom's birthright from the weak devour.

Notebook 2012

2011-12-26T14:58:00.009+13:00

In 2012 I intend to be posting more to Notebook. The posts will be more scrappy and fragmentary--I'll be returning to using the blog more as an online scrapbook.

I'll be including links to information to books I've read, notes, observations, unusual words, etc.

I'll also be keeping up with Tuesday Poem. I think it's worth the effort. Poetry is perceived by many as an elitist literary form and Tuesday Poem seems to be a good way for people to read poems outside of literary journals and anthologies. Please contact me if you'd like to offer a poem for Tuesday Poem.

My main aim will be use the blog to track my reading so I can go back and find links to what I've read. I am still a bookworm: I'm one of those people who really don't watch a lot of TV although the eternal teenager in me is still fascinated by contemporary music--I watch a little of 'Transmission' on Juice nearly every night. I like being old enough to see how sensibilities mutate and change over time--the 'uncool' of LMFAO's videos remind me of Devo and New Wave. There's a sense of fun but also a DIY anti-elitist, anti-consumerist aesthetic at work.

Expect more rambling in the oncoming year. Expect less posts to Facebook (I have just had enough of it and I'm not even sure why! It's only really good for keeping in touch with family overseas).

I wont mention the three books I'm reviewing (more on those later) but I've just finished and enjoyed Kate Wilhelm's Where Late the Sweet Bird Sang and Jo Thorpe's in/let.

Poem for today: Jo Thorpe's in/let.

Cy Matthews reviews in in/let (along with two other books) over at The Landfall Review.

I hope that you are all having a great holiday. All the best for 2012.

Happy holidays and Goodwill to all

2011-12-24T07:43:00.003+13:00

I wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy Hannukah and a happy holidays. May 2012 bring you peace and contentment. Keep well everyone.

Rita Dove on Power and Powerlessness

2011-12-16T12:39:00.000+13:00

"Power is knowing who you are -- your strengths as well as the flaws -- and being content with what you see while still striving to improve. Powerlessness means you’ve handed that judgment over to someone else and buckled under other people's ulterior expectations."

Rita Dove

Until the Fulcrum Tips: A Conversation with Rita Dove and Jericho Brown

'The last surrealist' in Enamel 3.

2011-12-12T21:31:00.010+13:00

My poem 'The last surrealist' has been published in the final issue of Emma Barnes' Enamel along with poems by poets including Johanna Aitchison, Ahimsa Timoteo Bodhrán, Marisa Cappetta, Megan Clayton, Jennifer Compton, Joan Fleming, Janis Freegard, Helen Heath, Angeline King, Helen Lehndorf, Maria McMillan, Mark Pirie, Vaughan Rapatahana, Meliors Simms, Ian C Smith and Orchid Tierney.

This is the last Enamel and I'm pleased to be included in the ultimate issue. I'm sure Emma will be moving on to new projects.

An interview with Tim Jones

2011-12-06T18:00:00.005+13:00

Now, as I'm sure you all know, Tim's a good friend of mine. We met over our writing--Tim was putting together an anthology of NZ SF poetry and I, recently returned to NZ from Asia, was keen to take part. We have a lot in common; we're both born in the north of England, both love poetry, both love SF, and both share a common sense of urgency around the need to take climate change, sustainability, and social justice issues seriously.

I recently interviewed Tim about his new book of poems 'Men Briefly Explained.'

Would you agree that ‘Men Briefly Explained’ presents a contrast to the ‘man alone’ myths of NZ literature?

Only in part. Looking at the book when thinking about this question, it seems to me that there is a tension between "man alone" and "man not alone" poems in the book: there are archetypal loners like the character in the poem "The Outsider", even though he's an Australian rather than a New Zealander", and there is the man who is desperately sad at being separated from his children in "Coverage". On the other hand, the narrator of "Queens of Silk, Kings of Velour" is rather pleased at the company he's keeping.

"Family Man" is the poem where I specifically set out to explore this tension. I split myself in two, the man who's out and about in the world, affecting the course of events, and the one who's at home looking after his son. The man of the world feels the call of home:

... But now he's taken to hanging round the house,
not picking up, showing the boy amusing tricks

and games to play with string. I'm bored,
my double tells me, and:- how can you stand

to live this way? I look into his empty face.
You're the one who chose to fall in love, I say.

Whichever side of the alone/not alone fence one is on, the grass sometimes appears to grow especially lush on the other side. One side holds out the promise of freedom, independence, unlimited time to write - but also the risk of loneliness, disconnection, depression. The other side holds out warmth, love, friendship - but also the risk of claustrophobia, loss of independence, loss of writing time.

I wonder if I should have called the book "Writers Briefly Explained"?

Many of the poems recognise the nostalgia or ‘self-haunting’ middle-aged men feel for their younger selves. Do you think that we need to reconcile ourselves to the younger men still within us?

Men are famous for having mid-life crises - buying a red Ferrari if you can afford a red Ferrari, taking up with younger partners, a sudden desire to go clubbing ... in my case, it's been a renewed interest in new bands and new music, which probably isn't a crisis for anything other than our household data plan, and a renewed commitment to environmental activism. So perhaps that's a little bit of the nostalgia that you refer to coming out.

I think of my late teens and early twenties as the unhappiest time of my life, so I don't feel any nostalgia at all for that period on a conscious level - I would hate to be pitched back into that shy, overly self-conscious, directionless and distinctly gormless lad - but I'm well aware he is still there inside me, wondering whether his Gore High School jersey would be the ideal outfit for an under-age trip to the bottle store.

I like your sense of humour and play in the book. Is humour hard to write?

Humour seems to come naturally to me over short distances - a poem, say, or a short short story - but I find it very hard to maintain over a longer work. I think that humorous writing is a greatly undervalued art, and craft - what someone like Terry Pratchett does is an immensely difficult balancing act to pull off.

In New Zealand literature in particular, I think humorous writing tends to be looked down on as insufficiently highbrow. Many of our literary critics stand at a Puritan pulpit, however much they try to disguise it with fluttering scraps of literary theory.

There’s clear environmental sensibility at work in your poetry. How do you balance art and politics in ‘Men Briefly Explained’?

It's interesting you say this, because I think of "Men Briefly Explained" as being the least environmentally-oriented of my poetry collections, though I guess that does come through in some of the men-in-a-landscape poems.

I think there is a kind of inverse relationship between the level of political involvement in the real world and the amount of politics in my writing: I'm heavily involved in environmental campaigns at the moment, in reaction to the present Government's complete contempt for the ecosystems we depend upon, and perhaps for that reason my writing has tended to focus on other areas. (Having said that, I am writing some distinctly political short stories at the moment - but that's more a case of politics being the subject of some of them.)

I was aware that I was taking a risk, a political risk if you wish, in writing a book called "Men Briefly Explained". First, insofar as it explains any type of men, it explains middle-class, middle-aged, heterosexual First World Pakeha men who are not entirely dissimilar to me; unfortunately, that disclaimer makes for a book title that's hard to fit on the cover.

Second, I didn't want to write an anti-feminist set of poems, and I hope I haven't done so. The book isn't heavy on the worst things that men do in the world - violence, rape and war - but there are some poems at the start of the book's second section that touch on those areas.

Do art and politics need to be balanced? I don't think it's a case of "one or the other". What I will say is that I find writing good political poems to be hard work - they need to be rooted in lived or closely observed experience to work well, I think.

What’s your next project?

I mentioned short stories above: it's taken a while, but I am finally back into writing short stories, with a view to putting another short story collection together. As we all know, to utter the phrase "putting together a short story collection" is to be obliged to fend off publishers, their eyes red, their jaws slavering, assaulting the unwary author with open chequebooks and promises of advances which put bankers' bonuses in the shade ...

... or not. Still, I'll write the stories, and send them off to the short story markets that are still determinedly out there, and think of something when it comes to getting a collection together.

How To Buy A Copy Of Men Briefly Explained

Men Briefly Explained is published by Interactive Press (IP) of Brisbane. You can find out more about Men Briefly Explained, and buy it direct from the publisher, on IP's mini-site for the book: http://www.ipoz.biz/Titles/MBE.htm

On my Men Briefly Explained page, there are more options for buying the book in person and online, plus latest reader reactions and reviews: http://timjonesbooks.blogspot.com/p/men-briefly-explained.html

Years with a Husband by Tim Jones

2011-12-05T21:20:00.003+13:00

Years with a Husband

Stone to her water
his edges eroded slowly
leaving the core in place.
He was immovable
from desk, chair,
or opinion,
the slave and exemplar
of routine.

If she let him
he would wear those clothes —
scuffed fawn trousers,
frayed blue shirt —
till eternity,
till kingdom come.
He would vote the same way,
express the same
dislikes:
lawn bowls, modern art, the very thought
of a Pacific holiday.
Their son
she now saw
was growing stony too.
She blamed testosterone
and private schools.

Still, there was this:
that as she stretched and changed
rode the courses of her life
her husband would always be there,
blunt, imperceptive, abrupt:
her rock.

Tim Jones

Credit note: "Years with a Husband" is included in Tim Jones' new poetry collection "Men Briefly Explained", published by Interactive Press (Brisbane). Copies of the book are available from bookshops and online. You can find out how to get hold of a copy here: http://timjonesbooks.blogspot.com/p/men-briefly-explained.html

Tim says: The man described in this poem doesn't have my particular likes and dislikes (hey, I like modern art!), but as I get older, I do find myself fighting against a creeping rigidity, and a growing tendency to say things along the lines of "you young people don't know how lucky you are" and "of course, in my day, we had proper [x]" (insert the [x] of your choice).

I notice this tendency to fixed ideas in other men of middle and greater years, more than I notice it in women. Is it a gender-linked trait? Is it all the fault of testosterone? I'm not sure, but I wanted to explore the idea in this poem, then invert the implied criticism at the end.

By the way, I got rid of those fawn trousers years ago - and I only wear that blue shirt when all the others are in the wash.

The Golden Age of Deconstruction

2011-11-28T22:26:00.007+13:00

A new, as yet unpublished poem.
More poems over at Tuesday Poem.

People have the Power.

2011-11-25T19:58:00.001+13:00

The Rival

2011-11-21T21:51:00.005+13:00

First published in The Lumière Reader.
More poems over at Tuesday Poem.

The Tapestry Weavers by Anson G. Chester

2011-11-14T18:59:00.007+13:00

The Tapestry Weavers

LET US TAKE to our heart a lesson, no braver lesson can be,
From the ways of the tapestry weavers, on the other side of the sea.
Above their head the pattern hangs, they study it with care,
And as to and fro the shuttle leaps their eyes are fastened there.
They tell this curious thing besides, of the patient, plodding weaver;
He works on the wrong side evermore, but works for the right side ever.

It is only when the weaving stops,and the web is loosed and turned.
That he sees his real handiwork, that his marvelous skill is learned.
Ah, the sight of its delicate beauty! It pays him for all its cost.
No rarer, daintier work than his was ever done by the frost!
Then the Master bringeth him golden hire and giveth him praise as well,
And how happy the heart of the weaver is, no tongue but his can tell.

The years of man are the looms of God,let down from the place of the sun,
Wherein we all are weaving, till the mystic web is done,
Weaving blindly but weaving surely, each for himself his fate;
We may not see how the right side looks, we can only weave and wait.
But, looking above for the pattern, no weaver hath need to fear;
Only let him look clear into Heaven—the perfect Pattern is there.

If he keeps the face of the Saviour forever and always in sight,
His toil shall be sweeter than honey, and his weaving is sure to be right
And when his task is ended, and the web is turned and shown
He shall hear the voice of the Master; it shall say to him, “Well done!”
And the white-winged angels of heaven, to bear him thence shall come down,
And God shall give him gold for his hire—not coin, but a crown!

Anson G. Chester (1888).

I found few lines from this hymn in Alan Garner's masterpiece The Stone Book Quartet and I thought I'd share the poem as a number of Tuesday Poem readers are weavers or work with fabrics.

Latika in final short list for 2011 Asian Short Story Competition

2011-11-12T13:43:00.004+13:00

Final short list for 2011 Asian Short Story Competition announced:

The New Zealand Society of Authors (PEN NZ Inc.) is delighted to announce the finalists of the inaugural Asian Short Story competition. The finalists are:

Angelique Kasmara – Asians with Perms
Lee Murray – The Red Cardigan
Rosabel Tan – Paper Butterflies
Latika Vasil – Open Home

Congratulations to the finalists. The winner will be announced at an award ceremony in Auckland on Friday 18th November and will receive a cheque for $3,000. The winning entry will be published on our website www.authors.org.nz for one month following the announcement.

The award this year has been generously funded by Creative New Zealand.
We received 43 entries and the selection panel felt that the overall standard was particularly high. The New Zealand Society of Authors (PEN NZ Inc.) is actively seeking ongoing funding to secure the future of this award.

Corporate Identity

2011-11-07T21:00:00.005+13:00

First published in Albatross 20.
More poems at Tuesday Poem.

Make Some Noise by Beastie Boys

2011-11-05T14:00:00.002+13:00

Support Haiti!

2011-11-03T17:23:00.005+13:00

BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE, WE NEED YOUR HELP!
Paul from Minuit has produced a hiphop track for the Kenbe La Foundation helping children in Haiti.
It is titled Kenbe La (Never Give Up) and features kiwi and international artists including Lisa Tomlins (currently in Europe with Sola Rosa), Luke Epapara (Kurnel MC) & Mika Ben (Haiti).
He also shot and edited a music video for it while over there in May this year, which showcases young street dancers (DanceBarefoot Workshop led by Ayikodans, Haiti) and infamous Port-au-Prince based graffiti artist 'Jerry' (think Banksie - but Haitian).
The track and the video focus attention on the life that exists despite the devastation of last year's earthquake -the vibrancy, colour, talent, artistic skill and resilience of Haitian young people.
Half of the country's population are under 18.
WATCH 'KENBE LA' MUSIC VIDEO
WHAT WE NEED
This is where we'd like you to come in. The tune was released digitally this week - Worldwide. We'd like people to download the song and share, blog, tweet, post, hollar the links far and wide.
This is not a Minuit track, but it is close to our hearts - and as supporters of Minuit we wanted to let you know. By downloading the song you're helping children in Haiti - but you're also spreading a message that we all need to hear : "we may not always have a choice what happens in life, but we do have a choice how we respond".
Download and support vital aid here.

Delph Whit Friday

2011-10-31T22:06:00.002+13:00

This poem was first published in Lancashire Life.
More poems at Tuesday Poem.

Eagleton on the new social order

2011-10-30T16:32:00.005+13:00

In this social order, then, you can no longer have bohemian rebels or revolutionary avant-gardes because they no longer have anything to blow up. Their top-hatted, frock-coated, easily outraged enemy has evaporated. Instead, the non-normative has become the norm. Nowadays, it is not just anarchists for whom anything goes, but starlets, newspaper editors, stockbrokers and corporation executives. The norm now is money; but since money has absolutely no principles or identity of its own; it is no kind of norm at all. It is utterly promiscuous, and will happily tag along with the highest bidder. It is infinitely adaptive to the most bizarre or extreme of situations, and like the Queen has no opinions of its own about anything.

Terry Eagleton. After Theory.
John Mullan review the book at The Guardian

I'm going to be posting the odd paragraph or two from books I've finished reading. I haven't kept up with my online reviews and this will be a way of keeping a record of what I've at least managed to finish.

Epiphenomenon by Tim Jones

2011-10-24T15:58:00.005+13:00

Epiphenomenon

His favoured (rather chilly) position
is to call the city
an epiphenomenon, a temporary thing,
a smudge on the map
soon wiped away.

In Courtenay Place, where smokers
use nicotine against the night,
he rules the pavement tables.
People edge closer to listen.
People edge away.

"All built on cheap oil.
When that runs dry,
you mark my words -"
He falls silent. It's cold. The wind
scatters his embers on the ground.

Later, pigeons
lead the clean-up crew.
A sparrow muscles in.
Bacteria
find space for life between the bricks.

The city trembles, writhes,
grows another clump of cells:
apartments, each a box
like his
to store the future in.

Tim Jones

Tim Jones is a poet and author of both science fiction and literary fiction who was awarded the New Zealand Society of Authors Janet Frame Memorial Award for Literature in 2010. Among his recent books are short story collection Transported (Vintage, 2008) and poetry anthology Voyagers: Science Fiction Poetry from New Zealand (Interactive Press, 2009), co-edited with Mark Pirie. Voyagers won the “Best Collected Work” category in the 2010 Sir Julius Vogel Awards.

Tim's third poetry collection, Men Briefly Explained, has just been published by Interactive Press, and he is embarking on a book launch tour. For book tour details and more on Men Briefly Explained, see http://timjonesbooks.blogspot.com/p/men-briefly-explained.html

Tour itinerary

Dunedin: Tuesday, 25 October, Circadian Rhythm Café, 72 St Andrew Street, 8pm
Christchurch: Wednesday, 26 October, CPIT, Madras Street, 5:30pm
Wellington: Thursday, 27 October, Wellington Central Library, 5:30 for 6pm
Lower Hutt: Friday, 28 October, Rona Gallery/Bookshop, Eastbourne, 6pm
Auckland: Tuesday 1 November, Poetry Live, Thirsty Dog, 469 Karangahape Road, 8pm

I'm looking forward to catching up with Tim at the launch this Thursday at the central library. Come along and hear some great poetry.

More poems at Tuesday Poem.

Google Earth

2011-10-17T21:27:00.005+13:00

This poem was published in Landfall 220.

More poems at Tuesday Poem.

Jennifer Maiden: Fieldnotes

2011-10-13T17:25:00.001+13:00

If you are interested, here are three excellent poem by Jennifer Maiden.

Learning the t

2011-10-10T21:40:00.006+13:00

Learning the t

braided light
from the garden’s abandoned bath
outside the room’s single window
danced like spinning skipping ropes
across the ceiling

I saw those waves of braided light
catch your mirror-work skirt
lying on a carpet covered with pins
left by the room’s previous tenant

in the quiet afternoon
I found the soft Hindi t of your name
while your hands spoke an accent
I have yet to learn and will never master

I’d left Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde on the back porch
the wind took the book over the far mountains

Harvey Molloy

This poem appears in Moonshot and was first published in Blackmail Press 17.

More poems at Tuesday Poem.

Garden

2011-10-06T16:39:00.002+13:00

This is our garden last week. Last week was spring; today we're winter.

Quand j'entends Minuit . . . fingers crossed

2011-10-05T17:20:00.000+13:00

Quand j'entends Minuit je pense: de plus, encore une fois, juste une fois de plus.

The Accidentals

2011-10-04T06:16:00.006+13:00

The Accidentals

Here come the accidentals
To change the pitch of the day you’re in
A car crash or a Lotto win
You don’t know chum when they will come
To change the song you planned to strum
The sudden death of friend or kin

Here come the accidentals
Your mother’s relapse on Bombay gin
Dame Fortune and her evil twin
It’s their signature tune you start to hum
A lament for your lost humdrum
Tricks in the wishes from all freed djinn

Harvey Molloy

This is a new poem. You're not really allowed to write rhymes anymore: free verse rules supreme. I wasn't trying to be avant-garde or retro; it just came out that way. You're meant to feel that there's a line missing at the end: 'here come the accidentals.' It's a sort of invisible spoken line. A friend of mine is at her father's funeral this morning and this poem is for her.

More poems at Tuesday Poem.

Tuesday Poem: The Snowman by Wallace Stevens

2011-09-27T17:28:00.000+13:00

Band

2011-09-22T18:04:00.007+12:00

This was taken just before we performed at the variety show. That's me in the front row behind the guitarist. We'd just finished our third rehearsal. I'm all getting ready to sing the back-up to 'twist and shout' and to improvise some dance steps.

This week's links:

Ginger Beer. Sarah Bainbridge
Foxtrot. Andrew Johnston
A Rabbit as King of the Ghosts. Wallace Stevens
Leaf-Girl. . . Kevin Crossley-Holland
VUW involvement in $3B science project strengthened.

Tuesday Poem: A Porcupine. Paul Muldoon

2011-09-19T21:03:00.002+12:00

Colossus

2011-09-15T19:15:00.004+12:00

In the school library I find a 1977 reprint of Plath’s first book The Colossus. How northern, almost Irish, the poems sound; all fen-frost and keel and barns—there’s even the poem ‘Hardcastle Crags.’ You'd never guess she was an American. I’ve never liked the term ‘confessional’: read without the baggage of her legend she’s a horror fantasist; she’s Poe’s granddaughter. Just look at the titles ‘Two views of a cadaver Room’, ‘The Ghost’s Leavetaking’, ‘Lorelei.’ Pages 36 to 38 have been carefully removed from the edition so that ‘Mushrooms’ ends “Bland-mannered, asking

This week's links:

1. Aubade. Alvin Pang
2. Singapore pens Asia's longest poem.
3. Facebook is fast becoming irrelevant. Hilton Tarrant
4. When quoting verse, one must be terse. David Orr
5. Whitcoulls withdraws from NZ Bookscan. Mary McCallum

Tuesday Poem: SONNET #43, FROM THE PORTUGUESE By Elizabeth Barrett Browning

2011-09-12T18:14:00.001+12:00

SONNET #43, FROM THE PORTUGUESE

By Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints!---I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!---and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

Keyboard

2011-09-09T17:54:00.005+12:00

The new silver touch sensitive keyboard sits in the living room. My mum and dad and my in-laws all chipped in and helped: it's a birthday present for the family. Latika and the two boys have learnt the opening to 'Ode to Joy'. I haven't started yet; three new learners is enough and in my spare time I'm attempting 'Whisky in the Jar' on the ukulele. It's enough for now just to hear them play.

Here's this week's links:

Collaborative Learning for the Digital Age. Cathy N Davidson
Carol Ann Duffy - 'Poems are a form of texting.' Joanna Moorhead
Time's all time top 100 Non-fiction Books.
Blame Vermeer. Vincent O'Sullivan
The Eye-Mote. Sylvia Plath

Tuesday Poem: Sea of Rains

2011-09-05T16:56:00.006+12:00

Sea of Rains

McKinnelly called the barn observatory.
Reflector or refractor, we didn’t know
not one of us then had seen the scope
but we'd heard the whir of motors
across the field on full-moon nights
wondered at the aperture in the roof.

Midsummer afternoons when the wind
no longer combed the cornfield
he’d race around the bottom paddock
full pack, hobnailed boots
and not a word out of him
as he sat on his evening pint.

When Fahey found his pony by Dobcross Lane
he wiped his forehead with his handkerchief
and led him back to McKinnelly’s
for a few words about the matter.

Tussock burnt on the top hill
as we called over the farm for him
in the barn a National Geographic map of the moon
with a needle stuck in the Sea of Rains
among the hay a discarded dew cap
and never a word from McKinnelly.

Harvey Molloy

More poems at Tuesday Poem.

Backup

2011-09-02T17:22:00.005+12:00

This week I sang on stage for the first time in a variety show. I couldn’t see anything but the lights in my eyes and to my ears the mike sounded off. I sang the backing vocals and attempted the dance moves. Notes are easier than steps. Twist and shout. We can work it on out.

This week's links:

Warcraft takes over man's world.
Awesome people reading.
Right on. Vincent O'Sullivan
Traffic Noise. Tom Weston
The Imaginary Museum (ongoing blog). Jack Ross

Tuesday Poem: Ode of Broken Loyalty by Sharon Olds.

2011-08-29T18:08:00.001+12:00

Realism

2011-08-25T21:02:00.009+12:00

I flick through an exercise book of old notes: "The Symbolists were against realism, against naturalism." Now a phone's a camera, a TV screen, a page, a browser--our moments are filled with tweets and status updates. Realism seems to be the prevalent orthodoxy; an ironic realism that views representations as part of the real.

This week's links:

The death of postmodernism. Edward Docx
Lawyer rubbishes police claims over autistic looter. Hayden Donnell
Come on all you Ghosts. Matthew Zapruder.
Witch Wife. M. Miriam Herrera
Valentine. Carol Ann Duffy

Tuesday Poem. 'Fantasy' read by Frank OHara

2011-08-22T17:58:00.000+12:00

Snow

2011-08-19T17:38:00.003+12:00

I enjoyed playing in the snow this week. When snow falls the flakes float in the night like giant white moths. The flakes are white nothings. On the ground snow becomes ice. A handful is snow is heavier than it looks.

Here's this week's links:

Facebook riot calls earn men four-year jail terms amid sentencing outcry. Owen Bowcott
Deor. Trans. Seamus Heaney.
Toward a Rational Response to Plagiarism. Rob Jenkins
Interstate. Anne Marie Fyfe.
An Open Letter Concerning the Evaluation by Colleges and Universities of Publishing by Creative Writers. Michael Anania

Tuesday Poem: 'Hay for the Horses' read by Gary Snyder

2011-08-15T17:22:00.001+12:00

Friday Five

2011-08-12T19:36:00.003+12:00

James McConnachie's review of The Crusades: The War for the Holy Land by Thomas Asbridge.
The myth of the extraordinary teacher by Elie Herman.
Eye to the Telescope.
Autism and Asperger’s in the DSM-V: Thoughts on clinical utility by Nestor Lopez-Duran.
Robyn Marsack's introduction to Ian Wedde's erudite and compelling The Commonplace Odes.

Mile End by Pulp Video Edit.

2011-08-10T19:26:00.002+12:00

Tuesday Poem: 'Talk about the Money' by Wanda Coleman

2011-08-08T18:31:00.004+12:00

The National - Anyone's Ghost Castle Rock Session

2011-08-06T20:57:00.000+12:00

Friday Five

2011-08-05T17:20:00.005+12:00

"prime dream." Mercedes Webb-Pullman.
Occupation. Libby Paulin.
Stephen Law.
Jane Robertson interviews Chad Taylor.
Something Must be Done about the Moon. Tracy Slaughter.

Tuesday Poem: Peace by Gerald Manley Hopkins

2011-08-01T18:31:00.002+12:00

Peace

When will you ever, Peace, wild wooddove, shy wings shut,
Your round me roaming end, and under be my boughs?
When, when, Peace, will you, Peace? I'll not play hypocrite
To own my heart: I yield you do come sometimes; but
That piecemeal peace is poor peace. What pure peace allows
Alarms of wars, the daunting wars, the death of it?

O surely, reaving Peace, my Lord should leave in lieu
Some good! And so he does leave Patience exquisite,
That plumes to Peace thereafter. And when Peace here does house
He comes with work to do, he does not come to coo,
He comes to brood and sit.

Gerald Manley Hopkins

Friday Five

2011-07-29T08:31:00.002+12:00

Amy brings the thesaurus. Elizabeth Smither.
Samuel Beckett online resources.
Telegraph interview with Seamus Heaney (2009).
Quote Unquote.
Two poems. Michael Aiken.

2011-07-28T19:29:00.002+12:00

"If we understand our own minds, and the things that are striving to utter themselves through our minds, we move others, not because we have understood or thought about those others, but because all life has the same root."

W.B. Yeats

Tuesday Poem: 'The Woodpecker Pecks but the Hole Does Not Appear.' Charles Wright

2011-07-26T08:56:00.001+12:00

The Monday Five

2011-07-25T16:42:00.004+12:00

1. Fourth moon discovered around Pluto. New Scientist.
2. Parable of the Door. G.C. Waldrep.
3. Affairs of Grammar and Style. A. Lane.
4. Teen Cusp: 1. David Howard.
5. Dorothea Tanning.

I used to run a 'Friday Five' and a 'Sunday Seven' column before the days of 'Tuesday Poem.' I stopped because I wasn't sure if people were reading. However, over the last fortnight I've realised that people were reading and that it's OK to link to poets I have no connection to IRL. This will be the Monday Five or the Wednesday Five or whatever depending on when I have gathered up five interesting links. I hope you enjoy it.

2011-07-24T07:57:00.000+12:00

Rae Armantrout. Hoop.

Slightly Peculiar Love Stories

2011-07-23T08:40:00.002+12:00

Slightly Peculiar Love Stories has been launched and includes Latika Vasil's story “It’s a Chemistry Thing’. You can buy a copy of Slightly Peculiar Love Stories in your preferred e-format from Rosa Mira Books.

Here is a description of the book from the Rosa Mira website:

Whimsical, intense, pensive or amorous — we bring you a love story for every mood, each a little unorthodox, mysterious, or slightly peculiar.

Slightly Peculiar Love Stories paint a grand mandala of experience and circumstance: love appears and disappears; it aches and it dares; amuses and amazes; hurts, heals and begins again.

Love preoccupies writers from New Zealand, Israel, Hong Kong, Argentina and Athens, the UK and the US. Their 26 stories have been selected and edited by Penelope Todd.

Learn more about these slightly peculiar writers here and on the Rosa Mira Books blog.

Poetry Day Poem: The Golden Age of Deconstruction

2011-07-22T10:06:00.007+12:00

The Golden Age of Deconstruction

has yet to arrive. The Golden Age
will be an unimaginable monstrosity
of signs without end for the educated low-waged
awaiting tenure in small New Zealand cities

say Palmerston North. While they wait
they work as tutors, market researchers,
baristas, clerks; expectations deflate
sans tenure they translate into teachers

or council officers. The Golden Age
of Deconstruction is a youthful folly;
days spent in fevered exegesis of a page
of Derrida on Nietzsche’s forgotten brolly

privately remembered in drinks after work
with colleagues in the job you took to survive
while Jan works off her loan as a hotel clerk.
The golden age of endless play has yet to arrive.

Harvey Molloy

Nietzsche’s forgotten brolly: see Derrida's Spurs.

2011-07-21T21:21:00.000+12:00

Rabbit Hole at Gryphon Theatre.

2011-07-20T17:02:00.001+12:00

Harry Rickett's introductory speech to Vincent O'Sullivan's latest book: Words for Vincent - an introduction by Harry Ricketts

2011-07-20T17:00:00.000+12:00

Sunday Star-Times Short Story Awards 2011

2011-07-20T16:49:00.002+12:00

Harmonious Black Africa

National Poetry Day 2011: Events Listing

2011-07-20T10:35:00.005+12:00

National Poetry Day 2011: Events Listing
Friday, 24 June 2011, 12:27 pm
Press Release: National Poetry Day

National Poetry Day 2011: Events Listing

Auckland

North Auckland

WINTER AT WAIPU POETRY EVENING
7 p.m. -9 p.m., 22nd July 2011
Y-Not Café, Waipu

Come and hear the winners of the Bream Bay poetry competition, read some of your favourite poetry, or just relax and listen to local people read and perform their own poems. $15.00 for cake and coffee, prizes for the best poems on the night. Book at Y-Not for a great evening’s entertainment. Email sue@fosterfrances.co.nz for further details.

FOR SHORE: POETRY READING
6 p.m. – 7.30 p.m. Friday 22nd July 2011
Takapuna Library, Takapuna, Auckland

The Friends of the Takapuna Library invite you to a poetry reading including North Shore poets Stu Bagby, Jack Ross, Donna A’Court, Dame Chris Cole-Catley, Sonia Yelich, Alice Hooton.

Entry is $2- Free food, drink and music provided. E.mail s.bagby@xtra.co.nz for further information.

THE HIBISCUS COAST POETRY EVENING
7 p.m. – 9.30 pm, Friday 22nd July 2011
Mozaik Café, 350 Hibiscus Coast Highway Orewa

After a very successful Poetry Day evening last year, we are repeating the format, with another local cafe available to host the event, this time Mosaic ( previously Kaizen). A $5.00 cover charge will go towards the use of the venue, and includes a ticket for the Poetry Book raffle.

From 7 pm readings of original and others’ poems will take place, interspersed with attendees own selections of coffee, wine or food, and some poetry-based activities

West Auckland

ART FROM THE KUMEU HEART
15th – 22nd July, 2011
In public places, unexpected spaces, Poetry in our towns, on noticeboards and on the ground....

Kumeu district will be celebrating National Poetry Day for the first time - of many.
In what will become an annual event, poetry will be exhibited in the Kumeu Arts Centre, but also on street corners, in shop windows and on community notice-boards.
Poetry will reflect Kumeu's heart. It will be accessible, surprising, inspiring, enlightening. We bring poetry to the people, with snippets and verses in all our local towns.

If there's sufficient interest we will also hold a poetry night, Kumeu Arts Centre,
300 Main Rd, behind the Huapai council office, 7 p.m.- 9 p.m., July 22nd 2011.
Please contact thetinshed@clear.net.nz to find out more.

THE LATE GREAT POETRY SHOW
7 p.m. – 10.30 p.m., Friday 29th July 2011
The top floor of Lopdell House, Titirangi, Auckland.

A wild winter night of poetry, music & mulled wine with poets: Rosetta Allan, Murray Edmond, Siobhan Harvey, Alice Hooton, Michele Leggott, Judith McNeil, Bob Orr, Alistair Paterson, John Pule, Jack Ross, Ila Selwyn, Penny Somervaille, Robert Sullivan & Denys Trussell

and musicians: Chris O'Connor & Nigel Gavin

plus a beautiful hand-made book of poems from the guest poets for $10
bookings 817 8087 extn 201 or info@lopdell.org.nz. Entry $10

Central Auckland

AUCKLAND LIBRARIES POETRY WRITING COMPETITION

This competition is for original work written by any member of Auckland Libraries. There are three age categories: 12 and under, 13-18, over 18. Entries close on 13th July. Entries online via the Library website www.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz

Prize winners will be announced at a ceremony at Mt Albert Community Library
84 St Lukes Road, Sandringham, Auckland on Friday 22 July 2011, at 5.30 pm.

POETRY LIVE RESURRECTION NIGHT
7 p.m. – 10.30 p.m., Tuesday 19th July 2011
The Thirsty Dog Tavern, 469 Karangehape Road, Auckland.

Come dressed as or in the persona of your favourite deceased poet and read a poem by that poet. Musician and guest poet to be advised. To enter just sign up for Open Mic on the night or register your interest at one of the earlier Tuesday nights. Prizes for best performance of a dead poet’s poem, best original work and spot/quiz prizes.

MC Penny, aided by Rachael, Kiri, Jeremy, Christian and Miriam - all of whom will be dressed to kill.

UTTER BRILLIANCE
7 p.m. – 10.30 p.m., Thursday 21st July 2011
The Thirsty Dog Tavern, 469 Karangehape Road, Auckland.

An open slam event with readings of 90 seconds or less, with a first prize of $250, and other prizes and encouragements. The Poetry Slam will open to enter on the night with registrations from 7 p.m. Slam MC and host is Michael Rudd. All entrants should be prepared to read/perform up to three poems. Also we’ll have our regular Pub Poetry Quiz open to all, again with prizes. On the night, there’ll be poetry performances from established Poets

Entry fee of $5 payable at the door. Contact utterbrilliance@xtra.co.nz or call/text 0274 763 879 for further information.

POETRY TRAIL
All Day, Friday 22nd July 2011
Auckland Central, including Art Agent Ltd, Jasons Books, Unity Books, Anna Miles Gallery, Gus Fisher Gallery and Hotel De Brett.

Take a walk of poetry and art, along the way visit art galleries and booksellers and complete your day with a poetry reading at Hotel De Brett featuring Bob Orr and John Pule. Contact Jane Sanders at Art Agent Ltd for more information: jane.sanders@artagent.co.nz.

POETRY PHONE
9 a.m. – 9 p.m., Friday 22nd July 2011

Poetry Phone lets you dial-a-poem, from 9am - 9pm, on Friday the 22nd of July. Poetry is read live when you call, or txt’d. There are four different numbers to call, and two to txt, each with a different genre of poem. Some well-known favourites will be recited, but the focus is on emerging local poets reading their own work, including poems written especially for the day. This will be an (09)-based event, but anyone can call, or txt the (021) numbers.

PARNELL CHILDREN’S POETRY FEST
10.30 a.m. – 11.30 a.m., Friday 22nd July 2011
Jubilee Hall, Jubilee Building, Parnell Library, 545 Parnell Road, Auckland 1052.

The Parnell Library invites 5-12 year-olds to participate in a celebration of children's poetry. Meet and hear published New Zeland Poets perform their own work and share the poems that inspired them as children. Poets performing include Simone Kaho, Rosetta Allan and Jai Macdonald. All children who attend will go in the draw for poetry prizes.

CHALKING NEWMARKET
1 p.m. - 2 p.m., Friday 22nd July 2011
Station Square, Newmarket.

An opportunity for poets, known and unknown to write their poetry on the paving of the square. Informal readings may happen. Well-known poet, Siobhan Harvey will be our muse. Chinese poets especially welcome. Free chalk provided. Supported by Dymocks Bookshop, Newmarket.

IN VOICE AND MUSIC – BRAVE NEW WORLD
1 p.m. – 2.30 pm, Friday 22nd July 2011
Wallace Trust Art Gallery, Pah Homestead, 72 Hillsborough Road, Hillsborough.

Six guest readers including Peter Bland, Stephanie Johnson and Michele Leggott will bring their own thoughts and words on how to save the world – and what’s worth saving! A poetry reading with a difference.

DYMOCKS PONSONBY BRINGS POETRY ALIVE IN THREE LAMPS
1 p.m. – 1.30 p.m., Friday 22nd July 2011
Dymocks Ponsonby 344 Ponsonby Road, Auckland

In conjunction with Auckland University Press, Dymocks brings you National Poetry Day, a chance to share your love of poetry. Come along and share poetry with Ian Wedde, Murray Edmond and guests as they read their own work and share the life and stories it represents. We would love to hear your poetic selves as well.

Entry is free and open to all to attend. Free drinks and food provided. Email ponsonby@dymocks.co.nz for information and to register your wish to attend for catering purposes.

POETRY CENTRAL 2011: BOOKS, BRIDGES AND PASIFIKA VOICES
5.30 p.m. – 7 p.m., Friday 22nd July 2011
Central City Library, Level 2, 44-46 Lorne Street, Auckland.

POETRY CENTRAL 2011 has it all! Readings by Brian Flaherty, Jennifer Compton, Anna Jackson, Michele Leggott, Robert Sullivan, Albert Wendt and Reina Whaitiri in an event presented by Auckland Central City Library in association with the New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre (nzepc), Auckland University Press and Otago University Press.

New books from Anna Jackson and Jennifer Compton, winner of the 2010 Kathleen Grattan Award. Steps on a digital bridge linking Auckland, New Zealand and Florence, Italy. Pasifika voices, a glass of wine and an electronic birthday cake for NZEPC. For more information email karen.craig@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz

THE LITERATTI RETHiNK POSSIBLE WORLDS - WINTERGARDEN
6.30 p.m. – 7.30 p.m., Friday 22nd July 2011
The Film Cafe, Winter Gardens, The Civic, crn Queen and Wellesley Streets, Auckland CBD.

The Literatti, in association with the International Film Festival and the Show me Shorts Film Cafe, presents 4 vignettes or short stories of poetry to music and moving image as a introduction to the RETHiNK Possible Worlds campaign and show in October - an exciting mental heath awareness campaign.

Entry is free and open to all to attend. To sign up for the RETHiNK youtube campaign please visit www.theliteratti.com or email theliteratti@gmail.com

HANDS ON POETRY
7 p.m. onwards, Friday 22nd July 2011
Alphabet City, 71 Mt Eden Road, Eden Terrace

Hands on Poetry is centred around poetry ‘zines and self-publishing. The event celebrates the launch of Hands Like Mirrors, a self-published print anthology featuring poetry and short fiction from young NZ and Australian poets. Contributors will read their work from the anthology, and copies will be available for sale.

Visitors are also encouraged to take part in the creation of a collaborative poetry ‘zine. Bring a poem of your own (or write one on the spot) and use Alphabet City's typewriters and tools to design a page of the ‘zine. Alphabet City will compile, photocopy and bind the ‘zine, then post copies to participants as well as ‘zine libraries in New Zealand and around the world.

Entry is free and open to all. Visit www.alphabetcity.org.nz for more information.

THE DIVINE MUSES VIII POETRY READING
7 p.m. – 9.00 p.m., Friday 22nd July 2011
St Paul’s Gallery, Auckland University of Technology Central Campus, St Paul’s Street, Auckland

A wonderful night of poetry readings by some of our best poets, including Kevin Ireland, Vivienne Plumb, Janet Charman, Robert Sullivan, Jo Emeney and Siobhan Harvey.

Free, drinks and food provided; all welcome. There’ll be poetry prize draws through the night and books by our authors for cash sale. Contact siobhanhrvy@gmail.com to book a seat.

POETS CONNECT
4.30 p.m. – 7.00 p.m., Saturday 23rd July 2011
Whitespace, 12 Crummer Road, Ponsonby, Auckland

A family-friendly event, Poets Connect sees Christchurch poets, ex-pat poets and Auckland-based poets perform live to each other and their audience via Skype. Guests include, Genevieve Mclean. Other poets to be announced.

Entry by gold coin koha. Email anna.bestlight@gmail.com for further information and to RSVP. Bring a plate and a cushion.

Thames

TRIPTYCH READINGS – 3 POETS PERFORMING
7.00 p.m. onwards, Friday 22nd July, 2011
The Brew, cnr Richmond St & Pollen St, Thames

Three members of the Thames Poets Circle will read their own work as well as other published poetry in a combined performance. Readers are Charlotte Murray from Whangamata, Jill Steadman Read from Paeroa and Katherine Sangster from Thames.

Entry free – for more information contact Jill Steadman Read on jills1@xtra.co.nz

Katikati

POETRY POTPOURRI
9.30 a.m. onwards, Friday 22nd – 23rd July, 2011

9.30 a.m., 22nd July- ‘Dance a Poem’ for young children at the Carisbrooke Chapel Hall. Children can dance and move to the poems from the little books Gaye has published as well as listening to old favourites. A guest character from one of the poems will pay a visit.

1.30 p.m., 22nd July – Organiser, Gaye Hemsley will read to the residents of Luxam Home some poems that make you smile.

Take a walk in Katikati’s Haiku Pathway and you could win a gift park of wine & chocolates by writing down a haiku from one of the boulders and post to 73 Wills Rd Katikati. Entries close July 30th.

2 p.m., 23rd July - High Tea and Poetry at Athenree Homestead. Open mike for you to read your own poem or one of your favourites or just relax and listen. Entry $10:
Tauranga

PAVED WITH POETRY
All Day, Friday 22nd July, 2011
Tauranga Main Street, Mt Maunganui Main Street, Fashion Island Papamoa and Greeton Village

All areas listed will have the work of local poets, including one poet per school, secured to the pavement for the enjoyment of the general public.

POETRY FROM THE ATRIUM
6.30 p.m. – 10.30 p.m., Friday 22nd July, 2011
‘The Atrium’, Bay of Plenty Polytechnic, Windermere Campus.

Poetry readings to an audience. Each 15-minute bracket will begin by recognising and celebrating one of our published local poets with other brackets being 3 minute opportunities for any poet to give it their best shot.

Guest poet Owen Bullock. The event will be filmed for local television. General Public are encouraged to attend. Gold coin entry. Cash bar (coins and notes) BYO nibbles only.

Hamilton

CHILDREN’S FOUND POETRY WORKSHOP
11.00 a.m. - 12.00 a.m., Friday 22nd July 2011
Garden Place (outside library), 9 Garden Place, Hamilton

Sharon Holt, local author of fiction and non-fiction, plays and poems for children, will briefly speak to the children about her writing before introducing them to found poetry. With words and phrases selected from a David Hill story, the children, as a group, will be encouraged to write a poem and present it on a display board to be displayed in the Garden Place Library. Open to children aged 5-12 years.

This workshop will be held inside the Garden Place Library in event of rain.
For more details visit www.hamiltonlibraries.co.nz

LUNCHTIME POETRY IN GARDEN PLACE
12.15 - 1.30pm, Friday 22nd July 2011
Garden Place (outside library), 9 Garden Place, Hamilton

An event to showcase our local and invited poets, reading and performing their poetry. Organised by the University of Waikato, WINTEC and Hamilton City Libraries. Everyone welcome In the event of rain, there is shelter at the front of the library. For more details visit www.hamiltonlibraries.co.nz

HAMILTON OPEN MIC NIGHT
6.30 p.m. - 8.30 p.m., Friday 22nd July 2011
Garden Place Library, 9 Garden Place, Hamilton

Join Poets Alive and guest poets and read your poetry to an appreciative audience.
One poem per person, please, and a time limit will apply. Everyone welcome

For more details visit www.hamiltonlibraries.co.nz

HAMILTON SLAMDOWN: POETRY SLAM
6.30 p.m., Monday 25th July 2011
Lido Cinemas (foyer), Centreplace, Hamilton

You are invited to participate in the evening of Spoken Word Poetry or just come along to watch and support the arts in Hamilton. Spoken Word Poetry is an art form combining theatre and poetry. Refreshments available. Everyone welcome

For more details visit www.hamiltonlibraries.co.nz

WAIKATO POETRY COMPETITIONS
Starts 1st July, with winners announced on Friday 22nd July 2011

Hamilton City Libraries Acrostic Poetry Competition

Open to children aged 5-12 years
For more details visit www.hamiltonlibraries.co.nz or www.wintec.ac.nz

WINTEC OPEN POETRY COMPETITION

Open to all ages and all poetry genres
For more details visit www.wintec.ac.nz or www.hamiltonlibraries.co.nz

POETRY TREE AT GARDEN PLACE LIBRARY

Throughout July, Level 1 of the Garden Place Library, 9 Garden Place, Hamilton

A large poet-tree for customers to display there own or favourite poems.

Hawke’s Bay

POETRY DISPLAY: Life...Love..& Nature
9 a.m. – 5 p.m., 18th July - 22nd July, 2011
Waipukurau library and Waipawa library CHB

Hawkes Bay passionate poet Wendy Joy Baker will display some heartfelt poems from her 3 little poetry books Titled True, Real & Soul Love. Poems will be about life’s diversity. For further information, visit her website: www.hawkesbaynz.net/wendyjoybaker

Taupo

FINE WORDS: TAUPO
10 a.m. onwards, Friday 22nd 2011

A feast of free events await including:

10 a.m. - Talk and Poetry Reading to be held at REAP. General Public and Students from Taupo-nui-a-tia and Tauhara Colleges will be invited.

Midday: Poetry Reading by members of the Fine Words Poetry Group and members of the public as well as visiting poet, Harry Ricketts to be held at the NZ Post shop, Taupo

4 p.m. - Price’s Bookshop offers a chance to people to meet and greet Harry Ricketts

6 p.m. – a shared meal with Fine Words - Fine Fellows poets of Taupo.

Wanganui

WANGANUI POETRY READING
7 p.m. – 9.30 p.m., Friday 22nd July, 2011
The Green Bench Gallery, 67 Guyton Street, Wanganui

The Wanganui Poetry Alive/ Poesía Viva Reading, organised by The Poetry Education Trust, will celebrate Aotearoa/New Zealand National Poetry Day featuring New Zealand poet and performer Mike Eager, Palmerston North based poet and lecturer Dr. Leonel Alvarado from Honduras, and local poet and performer Ron Riddell; accompanied by pianist Rick Baum and percussion by Ron Riddell.

$5 Entry. A complimentary glass of wine will be provided. Contact Saray Torres de Riddell: torresderiddellsaray@gmail.com for further information and to register your wish to attend.

Palmerston North

WRITERS READ SERIES: AN EVENING WITH BRIAN TURNER
6.30 p.m. onwards, Friday 22nd July, 2011
Sound & vision zone, Ground Floor, Palmerston North City Library

Celebrating National Poetry Day, Massey University School of English & Media Studies and the Palmerston North City Library present the best of New Zealand writing with award winning writer Brian Turner.

Paraparaumu

KAPITI NATIONAL POETRY DAY VIGIL
7 p.m. – 9.30 p.m., Thursday 21st July 2011
Paraparaumu Library, Rimu Road, Paraparaumu.

To welcome in National Poetry Day, we’ll celebrate poetry in New Zealand with a vigil event at the meeting room in Paraparaumu Library. We’ll start with a poetry quiz. The prize (subject to a draw of all correct winners) will be a book of New Zealand poetry. Readings from selected local poets will be followed by the guest poet Denis Welch. Happenings of poetry will be in cafes all over Kapiti during the week - watch the local papers and notice-boards!

Refreshments - free entry but koha appreciated.

Wellington

Upper Hutt

UPPER HUTT EVENTS – POETRY FOR THE PEOPLE!
All events will be held at the Upper Hutt City Library, 844 Fergusson Drive, Upper Hutt

June/July 2011 - Annual Poetry Competition - “Generational Poems”

10.30 a.m., Wednesday 20th June 2011 Poets Corner - bring and read your own original or favourite poems.

10.15 a.m. and 1.30 p.m., Thursday 30th June 2011 - Two Poetry Workshops with Mary-Jane Duffy, Lecturer in Poetry and Co-coordinator of Creative Writing Programme at Whitireia Polytech.

6.30 p.m., Friday 22nd July 2011 - Prize Poems (free drinks & nibbles). The announcement and prize-giving for Annual Upper Hutt Poetry Competition. Mayor Wayne Guppy presents the awards. Local Finalists read their poems. Audience select best local reader, “People’s Choice” award.

7.30 p.m., Friday 22nd July 2011 - Special Guest Poet, Bill Manhire. We’re excited to have the director of the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University Wellington, Bill Manhire (CNZM) come and share his poetry with us this year.

Entry is free and open to all to attend.

Lower Hutt

POETS CELEBRATING THE HUTT
2 p.m. – 3 p.m., Sunday 24th July 2011
Lower Hutt Central (War Memorial) Library Foyer (Outside the Cenotaph), Riddiford Gardens, Lower Hutt.

The Central Library Foyer will flow non-stop with verses that celebrates the Hutt. Some audience seating will be available. Some audience seating will be available. Bring along your own or other published works that celebrate the Hutt. Local poets will be "waxing lyrical" about their "patch".

Poetry subject will be restricted to the Hutt only, though any poetry style is fine.
MC is Graham Wolf.

Central

BEST NEW ZEALAND POEMS 10
12.15 - 1.15 p.m., Monday 18th July, 2011
The Marae, Level 4, The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington

As a curtain raiser for National Poetry Day, we present 10 of the 25 poets whose work was chosen by last year’s editor, Chris Price, for the on-line anthology ‘Best New Zealand Poems’. We welcome: Hinemoana Baker, Emma Barnes, James Brown, Kate Camp, Geoff Cochrane, Jennifer Compton, Anna Jackson, Anna Livesey, John Newton and Kerrin Sharpe. Chair: Bill Manhire.

Admission is free, all welcome. (Please note that no food may be taken into the Te Papa Marae.)

TE PAPA POETS
12 - 1.00 p.m., Friday 22nd July 2011
The Marae, Level 4, Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand

Te Papa writers - of all kinds - come out from behind the scenes for an hour of poetry and storytelling to celebrate National Poetry Day. Free entry.

2011 CAPITAL POETRY MARATHON
(Incorporating The Poetry Lunch-hour -Noon- 2pm)
9 a.m. – 5 p.m., Friday 22nd July, 2011
Bucket Fountain, Cuba Mall, Cuba Street, Wellington.

New Zealand's largest live street-poetry event returns! Just turn up and perform adjacent to the iconic Bucket Fountain in the Cuba Mall. Any poetry style and
any spoken tongue is fine. You can do several performances throughout the day if you so wish. From Noon - 2pm we’ll focus on our special poetry subject – ‘A favourite place’ (BUT we won't hold you to that)! We only ask that you keep the poetry "GY Certificate" and strictly non-offensive, please.

Bring along your own poems, Poetry Books, or use some of the poetry books provided at the venue. Free event, all welcome to perform. Contact Graham Wolf for more information - graham.w.wolf@gmail.com

Greymouth

POEMS ONLINE – POETS OUT LOUD
Community Poetry Reading
6.00 p.m. – 8.00 p.m., Friday 22nd July 2011
Grey District Library, Albert Street, Greymouth

The Grey District Library hosts a community poetry reading featuring West Coasters sharing their own original poems submitted for publication on the Kete West Coast website.

Entry is free and open for all to attend. Finger food provided and there’ll be a free poetry prize draw. For further information email Grey District Library at greg.oconnell@greydc.govt.nz

Christchurch

PHOENIX POETRY – RISING FROM THE RUBBLE
12.30 – 1.30 p.m.. Friday 22nd July 2011
Canterbury University Bookshop, University Drive, Ilam, Christchurch

This year’s National Poetry Day is especially vital for re-establishing literature as a means of communication and celebration here in our shaken city. We will precede the event with our usual Poetry Wall, where we encourage all to come and add a poem of their own or one they love to a dedicated wall within the shop.

Poets contributing to the event this year include new writers from the School for Young Writers and Hagley Writers’ Institute, and established poets James Norcliffe and Tusiata Avia. Morrin Rout will chair the session and it will culminate with a performance by Eastern’s lead singer/songwriter Adam McGrath.

Tea and coffee provided. No fee. Bring your lunch and join in the celebration of the word.

Dunedin

NATIONAL POETRY DAY 2011 – TONGUE-TWISTER CHALLENGE
Saturday 16th July – Sunday 24th July
All Dunedin Public Libraries

Tongue-Twisters are poems written to get your tongue in a tangle! Grab a Tongue-Twister from your local library and see how fast you can go without making a mistake.

Free entry.

NATIONAL POETRY DAY 2011: POETRY EVENING
7.00 p.m. - 9.00 p.m., Friday 22nd July 2011
4th Floor, Dunedin City Library, Dunedin

Enjoy a glass of wine and light refreshments as poetry is brought to life by some of our best-loved and upcoming poets. Featuring Fiona Farrell, Joanna Preston, Richard Reeve, Michael Steven and Rhian Gallagher. M.C. David Howard

Entry is free. Bookings essential: 03 474 3690 or library@dcc.govt.nz
Ticket collection: City Library

Tuesday Poem: Courtship and Marriage. Harvey Molloy

2011-07-19T18:11:00.002+12:00

Courtship and Marriage

Your father wants you

back by midnight

but first

a little Hindi

down the ghetto blaster's mike

before we get out of bed

let me give you a backrub

I'll walk you home . . .

now again in Hindi

now in English.

After three weeks

in Yogesh Uncle's house in Delhi

we found one morning

chai, masala omelet,

The Hindustan Times,

a filigree necklace and chain

cast in the finest gold

by the best Sikh jewelers

in Tilak Nagar

placed on a silver leaf tray.

To appease Auntie

we placed all our money

on an outside horse

picked by an astrologer

in Lucknow

who'd been at the Chivas.

Married we opted

for proportional representation

over first past the post

as a way of arranging

the lounge furniture

now nothing stays

long enough in one spot

to imprint the carpet

and we don't buy new

but here's the good news

the horse came in.

Harvey Molloy

First published in Blackmail Press 23.

2011-07-17T22:48:00.002+12:00

Susan Wheeler. Poem.

2011-07-14T19:14:00.003+12:00

Approximately Forever. C.D. Wright

2011-07-13T19:45:00.002+12:00

Winter. Aleksandra Lane.
Poetry archive recording of Vincent O'Sullivan.

Tuesday Poem: Robert Hass Reading in the 2008 Dodge Poetry Festival

2011-07-11T21:23:00.001+12:00

2011-07-10T20:40:00.003+12:00

Art is an activity of the spirit and when we lose track of what makes an art an art, we lose track of the spirit.

Robert Haas

Tuesday Poem: W.B.Yeats Reading His Own Verse

2011-07-04T19:12:00.002+12:00

Yeats made these recordings for the wireless in 1932, 1934 and the last on 28 October 1937 when he was 72. He died on January 28 1939. The photograph shows him sitting before the microphone in 1937.

Tuesday Poem: The Goodbyes

2011-06-28T06:31:00.005+12:00

The Goodbyes

Now the questions have begun

you know that the goodbyes

are going to be difficult.

What do you tell the kids

about where you will be going

when where you‘ll be going

isn't a place at all but is simply

out of their lives, out of the picture?

There's no question of reunion

and they wouldn't believe any bullshit

about coming back as a dog or

cruising azure highways together.

So you drive to the coast

ask them to close their eyes and listen

to the late summer waves on the wet sand

the calls of children across the water.

You tell them not to worry

the incoming tide will have the last word

the incoming tide always does.

Harvey Molloy

First published in Blackmail Press 23

Tuesday Poem: 'Closer' by Harvey Molloy

2011-06-21T17:43:00.005+12:00

'Closer'

(for I. Curtis 1956-1980)

We walked the same hills, Ian.

We passed the closed doors of familiar villages and towns

Oldham, Saddleworth, Maccelsfield.

The North eats her young, Ian,

she gives you a voice and makes a fool of you

with a voice like that how could you be serious?

Talking like that how could you ever be for real?

You would always be laying it on a bit thick

you would always be hearing yourself speak

as if you were the grandfather who never read

as if you were two women fighting in the street

good for sarky, good for mithering

good for kicking the shit out of all that sounds grand

filled with shards of broken past like York midden.

But the voice is also a small dark stream

running past Roman dry stone walls, Ian,

on the outskirts of slate grey mill town.

The water’s clear enough by day

but dusk congeals the slow waters past the bridge

thickens the moon and street lamps

into grotesque caricatures

fall into those waters, Ian,

and you’ll be taken out on the ride of your life

with all the other Lancastrian male hysterics

dressed in Crombie overcoats dreaming

their half-arsed Ambrosial dreams

before they scream blue murder in desperate lines

that’s when you start seeing Witch Trials, Crow,

The Passover, The Eternal and whatnot, Ian,

and after you’ve shot your mouth off

about out what you’ve seen and where you’ve been

you’ll be sure she’s pulled you out

with a toddy and a granny shawl

you’ll be frightened, a bit pissed

alone and shaking and still you’ll hear

a wheezy voice, as thick as ginger parkin

like a pensioner whose been at The Embassy cigarettes

“Come on, our Ian, it’s time for your turn.

Stand a little closer where I can see yer.

Go on love, get on with it!

Just step up on this small stool here.”

I was not that face in the water

Nor Jenny Greenteeth pulling you under

Nor shade under oak which made you shiver

I was only the tain of the mirror.

Harvey Molloy

Notes

The poem is addressed to Ian Curtis, lead singer of Joy Division.
Sarky= Sarcastic. Mithering=To fuss, pester or annoy someone.
Crow: see Ted Hughes.
Witch Trials: Manchester trails in 1612. Also sung about by The Fall.
The Passover, The Eternal: Joy Division songs.
Tain of the mirror: this is taken from the title of Rodolphe Gasché's book Derrida and the philosophy of reflection.
The poem was first published in BMP 25.

Tuesday poem: The rival by Harvey Molloy

2011-06-13T20:23:00.002+12:00

The rival

The rival has copied these words
into his 1B5 notebook:

lexie, spicule, sybarites, cloisonné

The rival now knows these words.
He takes copious notes.

*

His Facebook photo
thirteen years from now:
an aluminium framed circular
shaving mirror; a bone handled
barber’s razor on a porcelain sink:

a designer’s conceit.

*

Wind the beat back. Not
at his desk now. Notebook
open; alt.books.p-k-dick
window tucked in the taskbar.
An ordered pile to the right
of the screen: de facto inbox.
Site architectures, contact
reports, design rationales,
usability test results. Timesheets
doctored in the client’s favour.

*

To the left one Caffé L’affare cup
chocolate flotsam from the receding
cappuccino tide above a mud pool bottom.
Around the monitor a blue-tacked
flotilla of Babylon 5 ships
(Starfury fighter, Mimbari cruiser)
orbit within the screen’s Geekosphere.
Outside a slate grey Wellington sky.

*

A mobile burr
a single low treble
phone note, say
the digit one depressed
for a second. This number
means business.

*

Not his mobile. ‘He
was never one to carry
a mobile’ which colleague
after he left said that?

*

A week’s completed timesheets,
each day portioned into fifteen
minute blocks, each day’s billable
hours totalled. All looks good
but how does it match the budget?

*

The rival is the one
who chose this present
who chose this game
who managed accounts
who didn’t notice
how each contact report
each billable hour
will need to be snuffed out;
who didn’t notice
how the art of snuffing out will in time
need to be snuffed out, how
from a future world the rival’s
game will need to be dealt to
in order for the flows to escape.

*

Switch off the stereo,
leave the open plan
office (studio?) workstation
to the elevator escape pod.
Welcome concrete sky.

*

Outside,
yes. Walk a path through
a tiled park. Council
sign: slippery when wet.
Each building has a physical
address. The Southerly slaps
the face of the rival.

First published in The Lumière Reader.
More poems over at Tuesday Poem.

Takahe 72

2011-06-11T19:01:00.011+12:00

My poems 'Five Years' and 'After New Year' were published in Takahe 72 this week along with poetry by, amongst others, Tusiata Avia, Marisa Cappetta, Chris Parsons, David Hill, Mark Pirie, Ruth Arnison, Helen Yong, Robert McLean, Aleksandra Lane, Angela King, Keith Nunes, Marion Jones and short fiction by, amongst others, Latika Vasil. I love being in the same issue as Latika. I'm not sure about all these author statements and photos. I don't want to everything to look like Facebook.

And I chose Richard von Sturmer's The Book of Equanimity Verses as this week's Tuesday Poem.

Tuesday Poem: coming soon

2011-06-04T13:56:00.003+12:00

Well, it's been a bit of a grim week. Mum was in hospital and now she's out of hospital. We were burgled. Not too much was taken but it's hard to feel safe when some creep has entered your house. I'm guest editor for The Tuesday Poem this week and I've got the poem and my comments ready. Now all I've got to do is finish writing all those school reports.

Fiction Romance. The Buzzcocks.
Genius lyrics here.

Tuesday Poem: James Tate, Marilyn Hacker & Paul Muldoon

2011-05-30T19:40:00.003+12:00

Tuesday Poem: Mark Strand reads three poems.

2011-05-24T18:15:00.000+12:00

Revenant is Thursday Poem

2011-05-21T16:43:00.004+12:00

My poem 'Revenant' was published by the DomPost as the Thursday Poem this week. They fiddled a little with the enjambment but the poem seemed to survive. I'm pleased to have the chance to reach a wider audience.

The Decemberists. The Hazards of Love 2.

Tuesday Poem: "What Kind of Times Are These" by Adrienne Rich

2011-05-17T19:45:00.001+12:00

BMP 13

2011-05-14T08:22:00.008+12:00

I'm reading the new Blackmail Press 13: The 36 inch bust issue. I always enjoy BMP. I spent last night and this morning translating a short fragmented riddle from The Exeter Book. There are some odd poems there all right. It still needs some work. I wish I could write faster. It takes a while to get it right. It's better though to be a little slow. I look back at poems written in haste in the 80s and wince. Not so good. But that's a while ago now.

Alasdair Roberts. Long Lankin.

Tuesday Poem: The Man on a Dump by Wallace Stevens

2011-05-10T18:21:00.002+12:00

The Man On The Dump

Day creeps down. The moon is creeping up.
The sun is a corbeil of flowers the moon Blanche
Places there, a bouquet. Ho-ho ... The dump is full
Of images. Days pass like papers from a press.
The bouquets come here in the papers. So the sun,
And so the moon, both come, and the janitor’s poems
Of every day, the wrapper on the can of pears,
The cat in the paper-bag, the corset, the box
From Esthonia: the tiger chest, for tea.
The freshness of night has been fresh a long time.
The freshness of morning, the blowing of day, one says
That it puffs as Cornelius Nepos reads, it puffs
More than, less than or it puffs like this or that.
The green smacks in the eye, the dew in the green
Smacks like fresh water in a can, like the sea
On a cocoanut—how many men have copied dew
For buttons, how many women have covered themselves
With dew, dew dresses, stones and chains of dew, heads
Of the floweriest flowers dewed with the dewiest dew.
One grows to hate these things except on the dump.

Now, in the time of spring (azaleas, trilliums,
Myrtle, viburnums, daffodils, blue phlox),
Between that disgust and this, between the things
That are on the dump (azaleas and so on)
And those that will be (azaleas and so on),
One feels the purifying change. One rejects
The trash.

That’s the moment when the moon creeps up
To the bubbling of bassoons. That’s the time
One looks at the elephant-colorings of tires.
Everything is shed; and the moon comes up as the moon
(All its images are in the dump) and you see
As a man (not like an image of a man),
You see the moon rise in the empty sky.

One sits and beats an old tin can, lard pail.
One beats and beats for that which one believes.
That’s what one wants to get near. Could it after all
Be merely oneself, as superior as the ear
To a crow’s voice? Did the nightingale torture the ear,
Pack the heart and scratch the mind? And does the ear
Solace itself in peevish birds? Is it peace,
Is it a philosopher’s honeymoon, one finds
On the dump? Is it to sit among mattresses of the dead,
Bottles, pots, shoes and grass and murmur aptest eve:
Is it to hear the blatter of grackles and say
Invisible priest; is it to eject, to pull
The day to pieces and cry stanza my stone?
Where was it one first heard of the truth? The the.

"Leda, After the Swan" by Carl Phillips (1992)

2011-05-02T17:50:00.001+12:00

Revenant in Broadsheet 7

2011-04-30T09:39:00.006+12:00

My poem 'Revenant' was published this week in Broadsheet 7, along with poems by Anthony Rudolf, Emma Barnes, Sarah Jane Barnett, Janet Charman, Basim Furat, Anna Jackson, Saradha Koirala, Graham Lindsay, Helen Lowe, Bill Manhire, Genevieve McClean, Ila Selwyn and Madeleine Marie Slavick.

Broadsheet is available at Unity Books and free online.

Tuesday Poem: W.B. Yeats-Politics performed by Ehson Rad and D. Kent Watson

2011-04-26T09:30:00.001+12:00

Snorkel 13

2011-04-23T09:37:00.002+12:00

This week my poem 'Book' appeared in Snorkel 13 along with poems by Vivian Smith, Michelle Leggott, Harry Ricketts, Lynn Davidson, Geoff Page, Bonny Cassidy, Karen Zelas, Michael Sharkey, Kerrin P. Sharpe, Luke Fischer, Jo Bryant and Janet Newman.

Tuesday Poem: Gemini Spacewalk

2011-04-19T12:21:00.006+12:00

Gemini Spacewalk

I was out there
with the flag

and the mission instructions
for the EVA

on my sleeve
but I fell behind schedule

caught by the blue arc
of sky and ocean

against the black
a hurricane-stirred

cappuccino cloud
covered the Gulf of Mexico

except for the transparent
flea of the Florida peninsula

even the small
drops of ice

from the coolant tank
formed perfect worlds

and I thought
of Trey’s letter

from the 365 US Marine
helicopter squadron

a fortnight spent cleaning the aircraft
cleaning weapons

watching dolphins and gulls
chase the ship

days spent writing letters
thinking of Mary Jane

listening to The Shirelles
thinking of home

then back ashore to the hot tent city
of the Da Nang airbase

the talk of Operation
Rolling Thunder

towns with colonnades
balustrades

overlooking wide
rain-soaked boulevards

that could be Louisiana!
just think now

the space
between Hanoi and New Orleans

would be how many
arc minutes

measured by the fingers
of my outspread hand?

Harvey Molloy

This poem is from my book Moonshot and was first published by Blackmail Press.

EVA: a NASA acronym for extra-vehicular activity; a spacewalk.
The poem is spoken by the persona of Edward Higgins White.

Owen Bullock at The Thistle Inn

2011-04-16T17:58:00.003+12:00

Poetry @ The Thistle Inn, Wellington
Monday 18 April, 7.30pm
The Thistle Inn, 3 Mulgrave St, Thorndon

The New Zealand Poetry Society presents Owen Bullock. Owen has been writing haiku since 1999 and his work in that genre has appeared in publications as diverse as Presence, Frogpond, paper wasp, Shamrock and Magnapoets. He is a former editor of Spin/Kokako, Bravado, and Poetry NZ. Owen has published a book of haiku, wild camomile (Post Pressed, Australia, 2009); the novella A Cornish Story (Palores, UK, 2010), and a number of chapbooks of poetry. His first full collection of longer poems, sometimes the sky isn't big enough, is forthcoming from Steele Roberts.

The event is open to the public, and starts at 7.30pm. There will be an open mic and there is a $5 entry fee ($3 for members).

Supported by Creative Communities / Wellington City Council.

Links

Owen Bullock's Book Council page.

I don't know
I don't know whether I ever knew you
but I know you
I know you never knew me

Tuesday Poem: The Wrong Horse by Tim Jones

2011-04-12T20:05:00.006+12:00

The Wrong Horse

The pleasures of the text are the pleasures of spring.
Halter tops, tanned skin, buttocks
sashaying past an open office door.
You pack your books away.

The self is conceived as a structure of signifiers.
Thirty years at the chalk-face,
a dozen published books,
twenty to life in the M.L.A.

The forms of nature order themselves in codes.
Wine and juice, finger food,
a bound edition of Baudrillard,
a speech from the Head of School.

To repeat excessively is to enter into loss.
You will haunt the Library, play golf,
back the wrong horse
into the descending zero of the sun.

Tim Jones from his forthcoming book Men Briefly Explained.

Links

Tim's blog Books in the Trees.
Tuesday Poem: read our birthday poem!

Thanks Tim for the poem.

Happy birthday, Tuesday Poem

2011-04-09T15:05:00.002+12:00

This week we at The Tuesday Poem blog and blog ring celebrate our first birthday. I'm glad Mary McCallum asked me to be a founding member of the circle. Every Tuesday we each publish or celebrate a poem on our blogs. This week I've written a line in the 'exquisite corpse' communal birthday poem. My line "He lets go his hand so the biter can be tied" ends the second stanza of the poem. Happy birthday Tuesday Poem: many happy returns.

Tuesday Poem: Mary Oliver read 'Wild Geese' and other poems.

2011-04-04T21:25:00.001+12:00

More Tuesday poems at Tuesday Poem.

Tuesday Poem: In Shackles by Laura Solomon

2011-03-28T21:28:00.022+13:00

In Shackles

There must be some way out of this.
Iron cuts my wrists.
Around one ankle, a ball and chain.

I have been sitting here since the last ice age.
Nobody guesses how old I am.

They think one, maybe two hundred years;
my hair matts, my fingernails twist, gnarled –
my eyes roll back in my head,
a leper imitating prophesy.

For five quid, I’ll tell you your future.
You may not like what you hear.

O my dear, I will tell you the truth.

I am out of time. I don’t think, I just do.

Like the sun, I burn;
sparks fly from the fire at my feet,
what care I about these chains,
I don’t mind this servitude –
spitting, hissing like Caliban,
formulating, for centuries, escape plans.

The law was handed down.
Join forces underground.

Go on, spit in my eye and I’ll tell you your future;
you’ll die, I will never grow old.

Laura Solomon from In Vitro (2011).

About the Author Laura Solomon’s published books are Black Light (Tandem Press, 1999,NZ), Nothing Lasting (Tandem Press, 1997, NZ), Alternative Medicine (Flame Books, 2008, UK), An Imitation of Life (Solidus, 2009, UK) and Instant Messages (Proverse Publishing 2010, Hong Kong). She has twice won a prize in the Bridport competition and has won prizes in the Edwin Morgan International Poetry competition, the Ware Poets competition and Essex Poetry Festival competitions. The two sequels to Solomon’s novel Instant Messages (which won the Hong Kong Proverse Prize 2010) are ‘The Theory of Networks’ and ‘Operating Systems’, and have been accepted as e-books by Proverse Publishing, Hong Kong. Her new novel ‘Hilary and David’ has also been accepted as an e-book by Proverse Publishing, Hong Kong.

Links

In Vitro information.
Beattie's Book Blog on In Vitro.

Ruth's Book

2011-03-26T16:10:00.003+13:00

Ruth Carr, the lead singer and lyricist for the band Minuit, has just published a book of poems, lyrics, one-liners and drawings entitled I felt like a fight, alright. Ruth book, which reminds me a little of John Lennon's In his own write, stands as a wonderful introduction to poetry. I've admired Ruth's lyrics for years and so it's great to finally have a book that supplements the CDs. The book has many features of an art book in that Ruth has combined sketches with poems, stories and one liners. Typography plays a part, some lines set in courier, other pages are handwritten. Carr is a master of understatement and the book reads as part notebook, part songbook. It's the one liners that stay with me:

"I may be falling off the cliff, but I'm still dancing."
"we lost many things we couldn't quite name."
"let's die honest."

It's a must for any school library or for anyone aspiring song writer.

Links

Beattie's Book Blog review of the book.
Graham Reid's review.
Buy the book at Minuit.

Tuesday Poem: 'Yesterday' by W.S. Merwin

2011-03-22T18:17:00.005+13:00

Tuesday Poem: Abseiling At the Ellice St Quarry by Laurice Gilbert

2011-03-15T16:25:00.004+13:00

Abseiling At the Ellice St Quarry

Turning my back on the light year
separating me from the city,

I let my feet find the wall
- walking as a spider walks -

suspended by ropes I can only hope
are stronger than gravity.

Things with wings rocket from bushes
that have no right to grow

so far from the security
of a horizontal plane.

A century flashes by
and I’m back in Wellington,

sustained once more by her skyline,
smiling the width of a galaxy.

Laurice Gilbert

Laurice is the hard working president of the New Zealand Poetry Society. You can more about her here. Thanks to Laurice for the poem.

More Tuesday poems at Tuesday Poem.

Please contact me if you'd like to publish a poem on Notebook. You can leave a message in comments or contact me via Facebook or email.

Potlatch 20

2011-03-12T11:48:00.009+13:00

All this terrible news: after experiencing two mild quakes here in Wellington this month the pain in Tokyo and Christchurch hits hard. I watch the news then switch it off. At school, we raised money for Christchurch with some colleagues really putting in the work to organise raffles. I was almost tempted not to post today, to stop the blog for a while, to get on with the marking. But life goes on. The good news this week is that I received my Potlatch 20 t-shirt and the Potlatch programme which has published my poem 'The next ten thousand years.' Science fiction, fantasy and poetry are all passions from my teenage years and seeing my poem in the programme connects me with my ten-year old self. There's a part of me which loves SF/Fantasy and poetry and this is a very odd real fannish love which I never want to lose. I felt a similar feeling at the launch of Siobhan Harvey's book Lost Relations this week. All the people at the launch are poetry lovers--you could feel it in the room. There's not much money in poetry or kudos for most of us but we do it because we find so much pleasure (and toil) in the work. Siobhan read beautifully and Roger Steele gave me a pile of books for the school library.

Ian Drury and The Blockheads. Inbetweenies. My favourite Drury song: "As serious as things do seem/at least you put me on the team." More inbetweenies please.

Tuesday Poem: 'Prodigy' by Charles Simic

2011-03-07T21:24:00.003+13:00

More Tuesday poems at Tuesday Poem.

Please contact me if you'd like to publish a poem on Notebook. You can leave a message in comments or contact me via Facebook or email.

Interliq 14

2011-03-05T17:03:00.008+13:00

This week 'The Exorbitant' and 'Diwali' appeared in the Interlitq 14. Both of these poems are published in Moonshot. Latika Vasil's short story sleep also appears in this issue.

We're in good company. Here's a list below of other contributors to the issue:

Poetry

Marisa Cappetta

Biological Name for Moth

Coracle

Mary Cresswell

You, Now That It Is Safe

Listening at the Mouth of the Flower

Tension at the Airport

Clavicle

The Ballad of the Lonely Masturbator’s Wife

My Sister Writes Poetry

Quarantine Island, Dunedin

An Empty House in Titirangi

Richard Von Sturmer

The Book of Equanimity Verses

Prose

N.I.T.A by Young Marble Giants.

Nature intended the abstract.
The earth shakes twice in the night. I wake up
about three minutes before the second tremor.
We raise money at the school for the quake survivors.
We prepare our emergency kit.
I finish a draft of a poem and start work on The Wanderer.

Tuesday Poem: Erthe took of Erthe

2011-02-28T21:57:00.005+13:00

A Middle English poem—or is it a riddle?—Written around 1400.

Erthe took of erthe, erthe wyth wogh
Erthe other erthe to the erthe drough;
Erthe leyde erthe in erthen through
Than hadde erthe of erthe erthe ynough.

wogh: wrong, harm.
drough: drew, added
through: grave

More Tuesday poems at Tuesday Poem.

Please contact me if you'd like to publish a poem on Notebook. You can leave a message in comments or contact me via Facebook or email.

Helen Cubed

2011-02-26T11:09:00.005+13:00

Three great poets I'm looking forward to seeing. Don't miss this one.

Kris Kristoffersen. Sunday Morning Coming Down.

I guess the whole country has an earthquake hangover.

Tuesday Poem: Nonsense Rhymes

2011-02-22T18:22:00.008+13:00

On this horrible Tuesday, I think of these nonsense rhymes I learn as a child in Oldham. I remember the word as 'barefooted', not 'barefoot.'

It was a summer’s day in Winter
the snow was raining fast
a barefooted man with clogs on
stood sitting in the grass.

I walked down a straight crooked lane
and saw a dead donkey dieing
I picked up a brick that I couldn't lift
and sent that dead donkey flying.

I went to the pictures tomorrow
I got a front seat at the back
a lady gave me an orange
I ate it and gave it her back.

Revenant and NZ Poetry Archive

2011-02-19T08:42:00.005+13:00

This week I was delighted to hear that my poem 'Revenant' has been accepted by Mark Pirie for broadsheet 7 which will appear in May 2011 along with poems by Madeleine Marie Slavick (USA/Hong Kong), Janet Charman (NZ), Anna Jackson (NZ), Emma Barnes (NZ) and Basim Furat (Iraq/NZ). Details are over on the broadsheet blog.

Two new Wordpress sites I've linked to on the blog:

The New Zealand Poetry Archive which has a very useful page of NZ poetry related links including all major print journals and blogs.

Michael O'Leary. The Paekakariki-based poet, publisher and novelist now has his own Wordpress site.

The Rich Rule Us. Rennie Pilgrim feat. Ruth Carr. DecentralizedByGuilt remix.

Says it all really.

Tuesday Poem: Bus Stop by Harvey Molloy

2011-02-14T21:43:00.006+13:00

Bus Stop

Cold this morning isn't it? Is that a
meat pie you're eating? Funny how you get
a hankering for a meat pie on an
Autumn morning, get down to the bakery early
to get the best pies otherwise you're left
with those mince savories and garlic sausage rolls
and what’s a mince savory's but a stunted
meat pie? I can tell from the gravy smell
you're a mince pie man; or do I
detect the bouquet of chicken and veal? Only
buy bird and beast pies from the top
of the warmer - that's what our Billy says.
Don't ask me why. You've a strong jaw
and a good set of dentures on you;
the way you attacked that chunk of veal,
Sherman burning Atlanta. Enjoy
your real teeth while you can.
You'd like our Billy but he's more of
a sausage dog connoisseur than a pie man.
Not read Sun Tzu? Weaken the circumference and
the centre falls: nibble the top, peel back
the crust – exactly the same techniques as those
employed in open-cranium surgery Billy says –
he watches the Documentary Channel. The end’s
in sight, just the squishy drippings left. I see
it's a Big Ben pie. Well, at least they're
cheap. Affordable food for the masses and not
American owned. Billy had an old school friend
called Ben. He was a tall feller. Actually
he was a bit of a bastard. A Big Ben
bastard. I caught him once trying
to set fire to cat's tail. He never
came back after that. Look here's the number
twelve late again crawling up the hill.
We've only got a minute to go so I hope
you don't think me forward if I take
the liberty of asking you just one question:
do you mind if I lick your wrapper?

The poem appears in Enamel which you can buy at Unity Books in Wellington or online from Enamel.

The idea developed out of drama game called Bus Stop I used to play with my classes during a short, though rewarding, stint as a drama teacher. In this game two people are waiting at a bus stop and the first one to make the other laugh wins.