The Venetian Blind Poems, Paula Green
The Cuba Press, 2025

My poetry book pick is Paula Green’s The Venetian Blind Poems because it is about one individual and it is about our world. I love how this book flows, one long continuous reflection, no separate poem titles, only a page to turn and the mingling of thoughts, remembrances, notes for the day.

I love peering through the Venetian blinds, seeing the light and dark, striped and layered (and salty-sweet).

Liquorice strips of harbour
beyond grey to storm, beyond dark storm
to blinking cranes.

. . .

I think the whole world is made
of strips, strips of good and evil
strips of story and strips of song

I love how we skip through time, how we hear the story and song.

There’s the rustle bustle wind in the bush-clad valley
Buttered toast and clover honey
marmalade brain and mandarin heart
Ah, there were no fences around childhood summers

I love how the poet invites us in, the danger lurking and the idea of something better.

Hold onto your hats
there’s a wild ride ahead
I put a coloured pencil box
under the intense rainbow
for someone to find
The tigers are still howling

I love how this is a call to action, how poetry is beyond the individual, how this is protest poetry, written for our times.

Today there is the real world
and the imagined world
mixing up with
an Airini Beautrais short story
and missiles are dropping
and children are starving
and I can only do one day at a time
and The National is singing
and there’s a midnight moon
in the dead of the night

with the window wide open

I love how, in Paula’s hands, poetry holds damage and the search for recovery, how it’s (always, always) a shared act.

There’s a large grassy area
There’s room for dog play
and there’s the infinite blue
There’s time for dream
and there’s time for sleep

I will meet you at the top of the hill
We will be able to see for miles

Michelle Elvy

Adapted from a review in Landfall Review Online earlier this year.

Find the book here.

Michelle Elvy is a writer and editor in Ōtepoti Dunedin. Her books are the everrumble and the other side of better and the forthcoming Motion sickness. Her anthologies include Te Moana o Reo | Ocean of Languages, Poto: Iti te kupu, nui te kōrero | Short: The Big Book of Small Stories and the forthcoming MAYDAY.

Paula Green is a poet, children’s author and blogger. She lives on Tāmaki Makaurau’s west coast.