If facing the paper, your thought is 'I am an artist', you have no clue what to do. If the concepts of your function are, 'I am a shape maker, an entertainer, an expressive symbol collector'...then you have an explicit road map. Edgar Whitney

Saturday, March 13, 2010

In poetry news today...

February was a big month for me, in terms of publishing. Another poem appeared in The Press. Thank you to James Norcliffe who has kindly published 4 of my pieces in the last year.
In February Siobhan Harvey, poetry editor of Tahkahe Magazine accepted two poems. The date was also set for my reading for the Christchurch Poet's Collective: 31 March, Madras Street Cafe.

Perhaps the most important thing about February was the workshop by Joanna Preston I attended. Joanna was kind to all the writers, novice and more experienced, but I was itching to get some notes from her. I must have looked a bit wild eyed and over-eager (one of the reasons I tend to fail at interviews, ah well) because she invited anyone wanting feed back to stay after class. I rushed her and elbowed everyone out of the way, informed her I had all the ego pummeled out of me in 4 years of art school and asked her to go for it. In the follow up notes I have since received by email, Joanna has been incredibly generous with her time. Her feedback has been invaluable to me.

Kerrin P Sharpe is also a mentor and very good friend. In 2009 alone she was published by Snorkel, Turbine, and was selected for Best New Zealand Poems to name a few.

Time to return to scribbling.

Friday, March 12, 2010

on the death of a lover

my crucible
you are gone

you left me the alloy
ingot forged in your
bowl the colour

of apricots
with a lustrous nacre
deep as subterranean
caves

Sunday, March 7, 2010

The Little Goat

I graze too close to the ravine

my distracted goatherd
you forget my clumsy cloven
lips lead me astray

and I tumble