Some exciting news: Sing to Me of Home is ready to join its companions as the final instalment in my 'Home’ trilogy!
I started work on the collection in 2023, trawling through all my published and recent work and corralling and ordering poems that said loudly enough they should be included. After The Cuba Press agreed to publish the book, the Whitireia Publishing course students came on board as part of the publishing and editing package. The process from that point was an enjoyable one – I had to account for what I had written to a group of diligent, thorough and curious sets of eyes that wanted explanations and answers and who suggested fitting changes and corrections. The work is the better for their mahi.
Sing to Me of Home encompasses stories from all avenues of my life, not just from the last 25 years that I have been writing poetry. Those familiar with my work will find poems they know, as well as some poems not previously published. If you are new to my poems and are interested in social issues, the environment, and the politics that surround us, you may discover welcome perspectives and sometimes satirical takes on life matters.
For those of you who are living in Wellington/able to make it to Wellington, it would be great to see you at the book launch on Thursday, October 29th at 5:30pm, at Aurelia Books, 109 Willis St, Te Aro, Wellington.
The launch will be hosted by Aurelia Books, with help from The Cuba Press and the Whitireia Publishing students. Poets Harry Ricketts, Dinah Hawken and Tim Jones will join me at the microphone to read a selection of my work and some of their own. All are welcome to attend – and there will be plenty of nibbles and drinks to go around!
Sing to Me of Home is available for preorder through the Aurelia Books website (https://aureliabooks.co.nz/products/sing-to-me-of-home) and can be picked up at the launch if you are there, or sent to you.
The book draws its title from the following poem in the book:
National anthem
Which song plays for me
when I am missing home?
The cry of triumph over tyranny?
A call for God to save a queen or king?
A rally to a bloody flag or banner?
No, none of these.
These are not the things
that sing to me of home.
But if you were to score these notes –
A paddock with a sentry cabbage tree,
the noise a kererū makes flying,
tree fern unfurling and unfurled.
And if you were to hum this tune –
Kōwhai painting the town yellow,
kōtare on a washing line,
the smell of wet mānuka.
And if you were to add this chorus –
Hills dress-uniformed in bush,
the morepork’s call at night,
kauri holding up the sky.
This is the hymn, the anthem,
the waiata of my home.
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