Monday, October 31, 2011

Tongues of Ash Book Launch Readings Photos

These photos were taken by David Reiter, IP's director. The ones on the left are at the Wellington City Library launch  on Thursday of last week and those on the right are at the launch at Rona Gallery, Eastbourne on the Friday evening.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Tuesday Poem: The Snow-Sayer


The Snow-Sayer

Now and then
and as an aside
he would advise –
in the next day, or so
there will be snow.

When asked how he did it
he said he could read
between the lines
of a weather map
the code for snow.

To disbelievers he said
that TV forecasters
three hundred miles away
can’t hear pianissimo in
passages of snow.

Or, when news came
of his firstborn’s conception
it snowed, so now
he was fated to foretell
the birth of snow.

But at night, outside, alone
he sipped the wind
listened to the clouds
ran his fingers over the sky
for scent of snow.

Credit note: 'The Snow-Sayer' appears in my debut collection Tongues of Ash. It  received a ‘commended’ in the New Zealand Poetry Society’s 2006 International Poetry Competition and was first published in the competition anthology Tiny Gaps. 

Visit Tuesday Poem for more. 

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Not long to kick-off!

No, not that one – the one that happens after NZ returns to the relative normality of a post-RWC election campaign AND Tim Jones and I begin our joint book launch tour of the country (see my post of 31 Aug).

In case you weren't aware, Tim's collection of poetry is called 'Men Briefly Explained'. The following Poem is from Tim's book:


Family Man

My double relishes his freedom to move
through narrative and time. You'll find him

in the trunks of burned-out cars,
in the cat seat of history, riding pillion

as the motorcade fails to take the bend.
On the red carpet, just behind the stars,

he whispers poison in each lovely ear.
He’s the sine qua non, the ne plus ultra,

the hand chained to the plague ship’s tiller,
the indispensable figure of the fifth act.

But now he’s taken to hanging round the house,
not picking up, showing the boy amusing tricks

and games to play with string. I’m bored,
my double tells me, and:- how can you stand

to live this way? I look into his empty face.
You’re the one who chose to fall in love, I say.

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