Give women the vote: Flowers for women’s suffrage

Green Jewel (Griselinia littoralis) –   
       here is a leaflet
       for you and you
       and you

Wild Irish(wo)man –   
       forget the white flowers
       stay prickly, take
       no prisoners

Viola (mountain) – 
       conditions are rugged
       you will not be thanked
       by those drunken men
       falling in the River Avon
       but you are on the money

Gail Ingram

Gail Ingram writes from the Port Hills of Ōtautahi and is author of Contents Under Pressure (Pūkeko Publications 2019). She won the Caselberg International Poetry Award 2019 and the NZPS International Poetry Competition in 2016. Her work has appeared widely across Aotearoa, and in Australia, UK, Africa and USA. She is editor for a fine line and Flash Frontier: An Adventure in Short Fiction. Website 

A Town Trod by Poets, by Roger Hickin, photographs and poetry by Peter Olds

On writing

That great ‘W’ of sparkling gulls
adrift in the blue heaven;
I wonder if they see me
down here in the dark yard
hanging out my washing,

and do they struggle too
for a descriptive line?

Peter Olds, from You fit the description, Cold Hub Press, 2014

This gorgeous wee book fits in the palm of your hand which is perfect because you could think of it as a miniature travel guide. A Town Trod by Poets is a map of Ōtepoti Dunedin in words and images. It is published by Ō He Puna Auaha Dunedin UNESCO City of Literature. Poet and publisher, Roger Hickin, gathers and comments upon poems with links to the city, while Peter Olds has supplied poems along with photographs of city graffiti he spotted in 1990s Ōtepoti. There is also a Rogelio Guedea poem, ‘Conversación con Peter Olds’, translated by Roger.

I love the chapbook’s title and I love the idea of different ways of mapping a city. I am keen to see other cities producing city palm guides with images and poems. I started jotting down names for Tāmaki Makaurau: CK Stead, Karlo Mila, Robert Sullivan, Michele Leggott, Serie Barford, Ian Wedde, Courtney Sina Meredith, Kiri Piahana Wong, Selina Tusitala Marsh, Allen Curnow. Walking and poetry is such a lure. Grounding poetry in place is such an anchor. The geography of place can be mapped in so many different and distinctive ways, so many town layers or hints within the lines of a poem.

Poetry forms the tread. The poem is walked into being.
The town forms the tread. The town is poemed into being.

Years ago I got to curate Poetry on the Pavement for Tamaki Mākaurau – poems painted on the footpath in the central city created a fascinating inner city walk. I once saw a couple of Irish tourists reading the poem I had picked for Kitchener Street (was one of mine), and when I told them I had written the poem, they slapped their knees, shrieked with glee, and said ‘What a city of culture!’

Poetry frees the personal stories!

Roger Hickin has assembled a stellar Ōtepoti-gathering of poets: Janet Frame, Ruth Dallas, David Howard, James K Baxter, Iain Lonie, Bill Sewell, Ian Wedde, Charles Brasch, Brian Turner, Hone Tuwhare. Some locals, some visiting guests. The town poems speak of weather, people, other writers, smashing seas, buildings – think houses, galleries, bookshops – land and sky, panoramic and microscopic views. It is documentary, it is description, it is confession. It is gap, it is presence.

Peter Olds captivates with poems that are as much about being as they lay down the co-ordinates of place. There is a vital present tense: I am exquisitely in the moment as reader, in the scene and the anecdote.

I am so inspired by this gift of a book, I want to get on down to Ōtepoti and walk the city, palm book in hand. Stand at the top of the steepest street, stand by the art gallery in the Octagon. But I am also tempted to host some city gatherings on the blog so watch this space. I can’t do physical travels yet, but I can definitely travel in the imagination and virtual zones. Gathering the way younger generation poets are treading the towns and cities is a drawcard. How we poem tread our towns will keep me musing all day. Glorious.

I am writing this from
the top of the world’s
steepest street:
Baldwin.

There’s a cold wind
blowing, and all I can
see in the dark (apart
from this page) are

the receding tailights
of cautious cars

from ‘Nostalgic’ in Graffiti, Earl of Seacliffe Workshop, 2008

Dunedin City Library page and Ō He Puna Auaha UNESCO City of Literature book offer

delaying tactics

in one sentence
how do you get a book deal?

if you removed as many responsibilities as possible
what kind of things would you write?

when people ask what’s your favourite movie
what criteria do you use to narrow it down to just one?

on a scale of one to ten
how productive are you during episodes of insomnia?

how many times would you say
you need to test pool water?

how far into summer is too late
to start reading your holiday novel?

would you rather only be able to invite strangers
to dinner parties for the rest of your life

or have to listen to radio segments about protein
for an hour every day?

how can you get a very expensive ring back from a sibling
when you gave it to them as a gift?

after a chain of terrible dates
what happens to your breathing?

let’s say you’re curious
what’s the ideal age to try stripping?

what options are there
for an elaborate wax job?

Louise Wallace

Louise Wallace is the author of three collections of poetry published by Te Herenga Waka University Press, with her next book forthcoming in May 2023. She lives in Ōtepoti | Dunedin with her husband and their young son, and she is the founder and editor of Starling.

Keep the diamonds Keep the pearls 

I want sweet marrow bracelets
I want leathered threaded innards
Womb flowers is what I call them 
Give me ripe tumour florets 
Give me righteous hot growths
I can take it a whole river of it 
I can grow it a whole field of it 
Keep the ease Keep the quiet 
I want childhood dandelion 
And common black-eyed Susan
Found along the roadside 

Courtney Sina Meredith

Courtney Sina Meredith is a distinguished poet, playwright, fiction writer, performer, children’s author and essayist, with her works being translated and published around the world. A leading figure in the New Zealand arts sector, Courtney is the Director of Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust, an organisation committed to championing Oceanic arts and artists. Courtney’s award-winning works include her play Rushing Dolls, poetry Brown Girls in Bright Red Lipstick, short stories Tail of the Taniwha and children’s book The Adventures of Tupaia. Burst Kisses On The Actual Wind is Courtney’s new collection of poetry, the book was released in 2021 by Beatnik Books. 

Autumn 

When autumn hits here, 
the leaves tend not to fall. 

They cling and quiver in the wind 
like our disappointment in them  

and the few that fall go slippery and annoy us. 
The light, though, thaws our cold hearts 

and we don’t even care we’re being cheesy 
for a moment or so. Who needs  

a new cliché? Not us, not 
when there are bigger things to worry about – 

and not when it’s still possible to put them aside 
to look at the low shadows, the glow 

of the evening sun across the branches 
of the trees that refuse to be anything but green. 

Jane Arthur

Jane Arthur lives in Pōneke, where she is manager and co-owner of a small bookshop. Her first poetry collection, Craven, was published by Te Herenga Waka University Press (then VUP) in 2019 and won the Jessie Mackay Award for best first book of poetry at the 2020 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. A second collection will be published in 2023.

saffron 

//

there is a fire
cloud in the air
crawling up the 
side of her 
forearms & mixing 
with the smell of 
onion & olive oil 
that makes the 
entire house sweat
like it’s the 
middle of a
hot african summer

i’m never sure 
what she’s making
it always feels 
like a secret.
but i trust 
that it will 
somehow remind me 
of something i 
thought i have 
forgotten & tucked 
away 

she’ll say: 
the most important 
ingredient in somali 
cuisine is deep 
set curiosity & 
a sharp tongue 
she’ll say:
you have to 
get used to 
the zest of 
a lemon chopping
through the centre
of your lips 
& the deep 
orange stain of 
saffron that lingers
on the tips 
of your fingers 
like a light 
henna stain 
pressed delicately
on the night 
before eid 

& i smile 

& i believe her

because it’s easier 
that way 

Khadro Mohamed

Khadro Mohamed is a writer based in Wellington. Her work has appeared in various online magazines and websites including: Starling Magazine, Sweet Mammalian, Pantograph Punch, The Spinoff and more. Her newest body of work We’re All Made of Lightning published by Poneke based press We Are Babies, can be found in all good bookstores across the motu. 

The Slumber Pin

The Hawthorn bought at the garden supermarket
on an ordinary day. Commoner of the Woods
it said on the label. Don’t you love that, commoner?
Against the tall fence it grew all beautiful.
The white blossoms ate the young leaves,
the exquisite berries ate the autumn air.
The internet said it would bring good things,
love and babies in the warm spring. It would grow
into a hedge and under the hedge would be
the entrance to the fairy world. Don’t you love
the mythology? Like if you pricked your finger
on a Hawthorn spike you’d fall into a deep sleep
and wake up in a new place. So yeah, never
do that. And it was bad luck to harm a Hawthorn,
so never do that either, don’t harm the common tree.
You’re a commoner and proud of it, you love your
mythology and all that. And under the hedge
are settler ghosts who came on the ship because
why wouldn’t you? Under the hedge they
set up shop because why wouldn’t you.
In the end you do prick your finger, in fact
you’d already pricked your finger, you had
previously pricked your finger
on why we are here. 

Anne Kennedy

Anne Kennedy is an Auckland poet, novelist, script consultant and teacher. Recent books are The Sea Walks into a Wall (AUP) and The Ice Shelf (VUP). Awards include the 2021 Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement and the Montana NZ Book Award for Poetry. Anne has taught creative writing at the University of Hawai`i and Manukau Institute of Technology. Remember Me, an anthology of NZ poems to learn by heart, edited by Anne, is forthcoming from AUP in 2023.