Author Archives: Paula Green

Poetry Shelf Winter Season: Courtney Sina Meredith off-piste

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Uprising

 

Please be

an uprising

 

scissor my

black lace

 

indicate

 

be light

 

I’m scared of losing my faith

in people

/

I’m scared of losing my face

/

when I look into silver

your lips kiss all the shit away

 

I want an electric guitar

with a big circle amp

 

someone beautiful could sit there

& fuss over me

 

I like controlling the sea from my bedroom

bleeding & tearing the moon

 

I like howling at my octopus tits

one in every room

 

I’m a virgin

framed

 

a baby grand

next to mops and brooms

 

please keep calling me

 

so I can watch

your name flash angry blue

/

a storm

under my pillow

/

electric lines smile in the sky

 

with my smallest finger

in the smallest hour

I trace the maze

 

you were good at holding me

when the rain had nobody to fall on

 

you were good at knowing

souls from bodies

 

I still wear my organs like 80s leather

I still hear your voice in the corner              be light              be light

 

©Courtney Sina Meredith

 

Author note: I was 22 when I wrote this and in a lot of pain, I had no idea what was ahead of me, ignorance really is bliss. Months later I would undergo my first major operation and my endometriosis would be confirmed. I was channeling ancestors and trashing lovers and asking myself to keep on giving when I really felt like there was nothing left to give.

Courtney Sina Meredith is a poet, playwright, fiction writer and musician based in Auckland. She’s held a number of international writers’ residencies including the prestigious Fall Residency at the University of Iowa. In 2012 Meredith published her first book of poems, Brown Girls in Bright Red Lipstick, and in 2016 launched a collection of short stories, Tail of the Taniwha, with Beatnik Publishing.

Courtney Sina Meredith, 2017 Arts Queensland Poet in Residence, will talk to Annie Te Whiu of Queensland Poetry Festival about her poetry, and the importance of place and politics in her writing, see here.

 

From Paula: For Poetry Shelf’s Winter Season, I invited 12 poets to pick one of their own poems that marks a shift in direction, that is outside the usual tracks of their poetry, that moves out of character, that nudges comfort zones of writing. It might be subject matter, style, form, approach, tone, effect, motivation, borrowings, revelation, invention, experimentation, exclusions, inclusions, melody …. anything!

 

 

Writers on Monday poet & essayist Marianne Boruch

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 Would anyone like to write this up for Poetry Shelf – for those of us sorry to miss it?

31 July The Little Death of Self: Marianne Boruch

American poet Marianne Boruch notes that ‘Both poetry and the essay come from the same impulse—to think about something and at the same time, see it closely, carefully, and enact it.’ A recent poetry collection Cadaver, Speak, sees her in the dissection room considering the ravages and resilience of the body, and in her new essay collection The Little Death of Self, Boruch’s restless curiosity ranges across science, music, medicine and art, asking questions such as ‘Why does the self grow smaller as the poem grows enormous?’ She is joined by poet and essayist Chris Price to explore how her poetry and essays approach the big topics of love, death and human knowledge.

Event runs from 12.15 to 1.15pm, Te Papa Marae,
Level 4, Te Papa
ADMISSION IS FREE, ALL WELCOME
Please note that no food
may be taken onto the Te Papa Marae

More from Poetry & the Essay Conference

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Poet essayist Marianne Boruch at Writers on Mondays
Those of you in or near Wellington next Monday (31 July) will likely want to get yourselves along to this Writers on Monday session which looks like it will be right up our alley.

The Little Death of Self: Marianne Boruch
American poet Marianne Boruch notes that ‘Both poetry and the essay come from the same impulse—to think about something and at the same time, see it closely, carefully, and enact it.’ A recent poetry collection Cadaver, Speak, sees her in the dissection room considering the ravages and resilience of the body, and in her new essay collection The Little Death of Self, Boruch’s restless curiosity ranges across science, music, medicine and art, asking questions such as ‘Why does the self grow smaller as the poem grows enormous?’ She is joined by poetry and creative nonfiction convenor Chris Price to explore how her poetry and essays approach the big topics of love, death and human knowledge.

The Writers on Mondays events are open to the public and free of charge.

12:15pm to 1:15pm, 31 July 2017
Te Papa Marae, Level 4, Te Papa, Wellington

Find out more about Marianne Boruch on the Poetry Foundation website

Conference subtitle
You may also notice that the conference has now acquired a subtitle: Form and Fragmentation. While reading through all the wonderful proposals we have received and attempting to draft a programme, we came to realise that form and fragmentation was one of the key themes that was emerging. We’re sure it will be the topic of many interesting discussions.

Conference programme coming soon
We are delighted and overwhelmed by the proposals we’ve received – more than can possibly fit into a three-day unstreamed conference. We’re working on the programme and trying to include as much as we can. If you’ve submitted a proposal, we’ll be in touch soon.

We’ve decided to delay opening registrations until we’ve published the programme. We’re so excited – it’s going to be amazing!

Our mailing address is:
Dr Anna Jackson
School of English, Film, Theatre and Media Studies
Victoria University of Wellington
PO Box 600
Wellington 6140
New Zealand

 

 

 

 

 

Poetry Shelf Winter Season: Ian Wedde off-piste

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From ‘A hymn to beauty: days of a year’

 

Beauty

you’re the trouble I’m in

because there’s a lot of sweetness in my life

with that rude kind of magnificence

as when they hung Le Bateau upside down,

unusually animated and sparking.

Happy Birthday Montgomery Clift:

Where did I see this guy—in Red River

or in From Here to Eternity?

Accept and you become whole

bend and you straighten.

 

 

I hung around a little too long

I was good but now I’m gone,

I may find myself in a tight spot

but forge ahead

where satellite images show Yongbyon

and a mariner in the distance appears cordial.

Happy Birthday Betty Hutton

who is to be found in the lines and gradations

of unsullied snow

for your heart will always be

where your riches are.

 

 

They’re Justified and they’re Ancient

and they drive an ice-cream van

so do what will help

and don’t worry what others think

if King Kong premieres in New York.

In his eyes, beauty may be seen.

Happy Birthday Lou Reed,

as fast as a musician scatters sounds

out of an instrument.

One thing only do I want

to marvel there.

 

©Ian Wedde Three Regrets and a Hymn to Beauty (Auckland University Press, 2005)

 

 

Note for poetry shelf

In ‘Enjoyment’, the preface to Selected Poems (2017), I ‘confess to restlessness and the enjoyment of subverting my own practice’, which is one way of saying I got bored with myself and switched tracks regularly over the years. In a selection covering fourteen collections these swerves look more abrupt than they were. One place where they converge is in ‘A hymn to beauty: days of a year’, a sequence of fifty-seven sections that sampled lines from songs, the day’s horoscope advice to Librans, a ‘today in history’ clip from the Evening Post, the birthday of someone famous, a quote from the shambolic literature of the Sublime, and a religious homily. It took up 22 pages in its original covers (Three Regrets and a Hymn to Beauty, AUP 2005) and I only stopped when a sensible little voice told me to—I was having too much fun. It took me out of an autoethnography groove, it allowed me to mess around with a complex word, beauty, without being trapped by aestheticising lyric conventions, and it construed narrative meanings that had nothing to do with my intentions. Fergus Barrowman first published the whole thing in Sport 32 (Summer 2004) for which I thank him. Here are three sections, the opening one and two more picked at random with my eyes shut.

 

Ian Wedde’s first (very small) book was published by Amphedesma Press in 1971 and in May this year his (fairly chunky) Selected Poems was published by Auckland University Press, with artwork by John Reynolds. A small book about the art of Judy Millar, Refer Judy Millar, is just out from Wunderblock in Berlin. His essay ‘How Not To Be At Home’ is in the anthology Home: New Writing just out from Massey University Press.

 

From Paula: For Poetry Shelf’s Winter Season, I invited 12 poets to pick one of their own poems that marks a shift in direction, that is outside the usual tracks of their poetry, that moves out of character, that nudges comfort zones of writing. It might be subject matter, style, form, approach, tone, effect, motivation, borrowings, revelation, invention, experimentation, exclusions, inclusions, melody …. anything!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poetry Shelf Winter Season: Poets off-piste

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For Poetry Shelf’s Winter Season, I invited 12 poets to pick one of their own poems that marks a shift in direction, that is outside the usual tracks of their poetry, that moves out of character, that nudges comfort zones of writing. It might be subject matter, style, form, approach, tone, effect, motivation, borrowings, revelation, invention, experimentation, exclusions, inclusions, melody …. anything!

Coincidentally, I heard Bill Manhire talk at AWF17, and I liked the way he put it. He discussed the way he encouraged students to ‘jump the tracks, to go sideways from themselves’ and, out of this, produce poetry that mattered to them and would somehow be their own. He also talked about the way he wrote short stories to turn sideways from the comfort track he had settled into with poetry.

I have borrowed the ski analogy because there is something wonderful about heading sideways from the well-skied track to snow that is altogether more risky but offering surprising rewards.

I will be posting poems over the next fortnight.

NZSA Lilian Ida Smith Award 2017 Award of $3,000 available to writers over the age of 35yr

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Full details here

The Lilian Ida Smith Award is offered by the NZ Society of Authors PEN Inc (NZSA) thanks to a bequest from Lilian Ida Smith, a music teacher of Whanganui who had a keen interest in the arts.

Lilian left part of her legacy to the NZSA to ‘assist people aged 35yrs and over to embark upon or further a literary career’.

  • The $3,000 award is to assist writers of non-fiction, fiction, poetry, comic / graphic novels and drama for adults and children. Applicants need to be aged 35 years and over, working towards completion of a specific project, and members of the NZSA.
  • Applicants are expected to be either in the early stages of their writing career, or to be someone for whom opportunities to fulfill their potential have been limited.

Two delights for Catherine Chidgey

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Janet Frame Literary Trust Award

Waikato novelist Catherine Chidgey has been named as the recipient of a Janet Frame Literary Trust Award worth $5,000. Catherine Chidgey is the author of four highly acclaimed novels including her latest book The Wish Child which picked up the Acorn Foundation Fiction Prize at the 2017 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. The Wish Child has been a bestseller in New Zealand and has just been published in the UK by Chatto & Windus, with US publication to follow in 2018.

See here

 

Commmended in ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize

The judges also commended three other stories: ‘Contributory Negligence’ by Stevi-Lee Alver (New South Wales), ‘The Man I Should Have Married’ by Catherine Chidgey (New Zealand), and ‘The Fog Harvester’ by Marie Gethins (Ireland). The commended authors each receive $850 and their stories will appear in ABR in coming months. A longlist of eighteen stories appears on our website.

Prize short list and details here

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Poetry surfs up in Paekakariki

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image001.jpg
Surf’s up!

This year’s Winter Readings returns to
Paekakariki after last year’s successful event, forming
a rebirth of a popular event at the City Gallery
and other venues in Wellington 2003-2008.
Each event featured a tribute to an album or group.
This year’s readings form a tribute to The Beach Boys.

Sunday, 6 August 2017

Poets: Marilyn Duckworth, MaryJane Thomson, Mark Pirie,
Damian Ruth, Michael O’Leary, Mary Maringikura
Campbell and Nelson Wattie (MC).

Venue: St Peter’s Hall, Beach Rd, Paekakariki.
Time: 2-4pm.

Admission to the reading is by koha. Books for
sale from 2.00pm. No EFTPOS. Cash/cheque sales only.

All welcome.

Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop (ESAW) will publish
an anthology of poems by the readers featured to
celebrate the event.

Winter Readings are presented by:

HeadworX Publishers

Paekakariki Community Trust

Poetry Archive Trust

Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop