Mark Pirie has put the latest issue of broadsheet No. 25, May 2020, up on the website for download as a PDF for reading. He is hoping he can have it printed soon, but notes it will probably be delayed this year.
Photo credit: Rebecca Hawkes
1. Lesson Six
I worked briefly at a very posh school. These kids had everything and neither they nor their teachers cared much about art except how to collect it. The walls had actual Colin McCahons on them. And the desks in the art rooms were very clean. It was a real big shame and I didn’t have the cahones to make much of a diff.
2. Report
I worked for a couple of years at a community art studio. A free creative space for anyone having a little trouble and it was so beautiful and rich (rich with mana & love & creativity that it is…. Funding, I imagine, continues to be a struggle). Wednesday mornings the staff met and reported on the attendees projects and progress…………………….. This poem, Report, is drawn from those meetings, tho names have been changed, of course.
Sam is a writer and artist who lives in Wellington. His first poetry collection, People from the Pit Stand Up, was published by VUP in 2018. He is represented by Bowen Galleries.
Kiwi book publishers are struggling to regroup after seeing sales obliterated in April.
The Publishers Association of New Zealand/Te Rau o Tākupu (PANZ) says members are reporting zero or minimal sales for the month of the Level 4 lockdown.
The risk to the book industry is at its greatest since the Global Financial Crisis.
“Publishers, along with our authors, illustrators and booksellers, are caught up in a negative spiral,” says Julia Marshall, PANZ President.
Unlike in most countries, in New Zealand books were not classed as essential items during Level 4.
“Online sales of books made a massive difference to sustaining publishers in many markets, including Australia,” Marshall says.
“While New Zealand publishers have remained at work remotely, preparing books for 2020 and 2021, they couldn’t sell print books until Level 3 permitted online and click & collect sales.”
Despite some short-term rescheduling due to the lockdown, Marshall says that PANZ members are on track to produce many fine books this year.
Publishers have also stepped up to make content available digitally to schools and families, recognising the vital role of books in home-based learning and personal wellbeing.
Educational publishers entrusted design files for many textbooks to the Ministry of Education so it could print and despatch books to schools, ensuring students could go on studying.
Others have given free licence to libraries, booksellers and schools across the country to provide readings and content from New Zealand books during the lockdown period.
Now that it’s ok to shop for books, Marshall encouraged New Zealanders to support the Kiwi booksellers and authors who like all of us are facing major challenges with the Covid-19 epidemic .
“This is the year to buy New Zealand books, if you want to be sure our books are still around in the future.
Te Papa’s giant squid dreams of the moana
school kids stare in awe and disgust
I’ve learnt more about my own
history from science teachers
giant soldiers mourn my captivity
the earthquake house shakes
in condemnation, docents wipe
away rebellious fingerprints
Did you know the Architeuthis has three hearts
and a donut shaped brain?
my ink is responsible
for love notes in math class
complicated café orders
ratifying bilateral trade agreements
are you reading this in hard copy
sweet saviour
if so… you’re welcome
once people have extracted
everything from you that’s special
they put you on display
and tell the world
how special you were
like the rugby hall of fame
where the 1985 All Blacks are kept in chains
destined to tackle each other into eternity
or permanent brain damage
I can’t find my edges
I’ve forgotten my reach
membrane liquefying
in industrial brine, I’m just
sinew floating in a historically
significant chowder
if you’re reading this before 2040
take an E-Scooter to the waterfront at midnight
break into the nature exhibit
pry open my colossal jar
let me Shawshank out of there
sliding back to my mother’s dank embrace
if you’re reading this after 2040 it’s too late
she’s already taken me back
Te Papa too
Jordan Hamel
Jordan Hamel (he/him) is a Pōneke-based poet and performer. He is the co-editor of Stasis Journal, which you should definitely check out. He was the 2018 New Zealand Poetry Slam champion and has words published or forthcoming in Poetry New Zealand, takahē, Landfall, Sport, Mimicry, Mayhem and elsewhere.
On April 1st Napier’s Beattie & Forbes invited poets to send in poems for the window display. Most are original and most are lockdown themed.
Just what you need on a rainy cabin fever day!
Go to Desperate Literature for other Cabin Fever episodes
my NZ Herald poem 2nd May 2020 from ongoing series they are publishing
It sees like some of our beach communities are being torn apart over beach access. Now that people can drive to their local beach it makes it an even more volatile subject. Do people measure how far they drive to collect takeaways? The only place within walking distance for me is more road. I strongly believe we need to work together for the good of our communities but we need kindness and empathy as our community glue. The Bethells Beach / Te Henga gates are locked still so miles of cars are backing up – but if all the people like me (who live a short drive away drive there) then that will make a beach load of cars. I do want to resume my early morning beach walks and go splashing in the shallows. I do want our small communities to connect with love and understanding. Some things need calling out through the correct channels (violence, spitting, breaking social distance, rudeness to essential workers, travel long distances) but driving to a local beach is now a Government approved activity.
Kia kaha
Keep safe
Ngā miihi nui
Paula Green
NZ Poetry Shelf 