a snippet of my veggie garden going wild

 

It was a bit of shock getting a letter inviting me to accept a New Year’s Honour (Member of NZ Order of Merit). Like Eileen Duggan I felt a bit flabbergasted, embarrassed and touched by the invitation. I was busy reading my way through Eileen’s archives when I got the letter – which seemed slightly uncanny as I was reading her thoughts on her Queen’s Honour along with poetry, books and New Zealand.

I do want to thank everyone in New Zealand who supports poetry: all the poets, publishers, readers, booksellers, festival organisers, media, reviewers and children poetry fans.

It is a special honour and I am grateful.

 

And I am so delighted to see the very wonderful Bernadette Hall also honoured.

Helen Rickerby’s Seraph Press published poetry books by both Bernadette and I in 2016, coincidentally.

 

Best wishes for a fabulous year of poetry in 2017.