. . . Poetry Notes

Autumn 2011 Volume 2, Issue 1

ISSN 1179-7681 Quarterly Newsletter of PANZA

Meg respectively from the love poems Inside this Issue Welcome collection, It’s Love Isn’t It?) and Lewis Scott, who delivered a stellar tribute Hello and welcome to the fifth issue of mixing poems from Alistair’s collection Welcome Poetry Notes, the newsletter of PANZA, Maori Battalion with his own poem- 1 the newly formed Poetry Archive of tribute to Alistair published recently in . the Dominion Post. Mark Pirie on the Alistair Poetry Notes will be published quarterly The poem I read by Alistair was ‘To and will include information about Campbell Exhibition Stuart’. It’s a memorable and moving goings on at the Archive, articles on poem by Alistair addressed to his historical New Zealand poets of interest, brother who died young in WWII. The Tributes to Alistair occasional poems by invited poets and a image that defined Stuart to Alistair was Campbell 2 record of recently received donations to his bowling action at the crease, about

the Archive. to deliver, and the promise of it left Classic New Zealand The newsletter will be available for free unfulfilled just as his life sadly cut poetry download from the Poetry Archive’s short: 3 website: …Your bowling action Young New Zealand poet http://poetryarchivenz.wordpress.com Rhys Brookbanks dies and the flight of the ball, 4 gathering speed as it flew towards its target, were to me Donation from the family of Mark Pirie on the a work of art. As an admiring Marie Weldon Parker younger brother, I celebrate this image of what you promised Recently received and never lived to fulfil. donations Exhibition ‘Nature,’ wrote William Blake, 5 ‘has no Outline, but Imagination has.’

About the Poetry Archive I see you turn and run up editor/poet/publisher Mark to the crease. I see your Pirie reports on the recent Alistair Te arm swing over. I see the Ariki Campbell Exhibition. ball in flight – and that is all.

On Sunday 1 May, I had the pleasure of I also talked about my friendship with participating in a reading at the Alistair Alistair from 1999-2009, the last decade Te Ariki Campbell Exhibition at Pataka of his life. I was privileged to publish Museum’s Bottle Creek Community two of Alistair’s books, Just Poetry Gallery. Alistair was one of our finest (2007) and It’s Love Isn’t It? (2008). I poets. I was asked by co-curator Peter read my poem for Alistair, ‘Early Days’ PANZA Coates (the filmmaker, photographer (not the poem of mine, ‘The Return’ PO Box 6637 and artist) to read a poem by Alistair also included in the exhibition and Marion Square and talk about my friendship with him. published in Poetry NZ, March 2011). Also reading were Peter himself with Wellington 6141 ‘Early Days’ is a letter-poem detailing Mary Campbell (reading for Alistair and my discovery of Alistair’s poems as a

...... Autumn 2011 student at Victoria University in 1993 (Mark Pirie’s report first appeared on and I read it as it gave me a chance to Beattie’s Book Blog, 6 May 2011) read from Alistair’s own letter in reply. Alistair was ‘touched by the poem’ and sent me a copy of his Sanctuary of Tributes to Alistair Spirits as a gift. After, I had a look around the exhibition Campbell co-created by his daughter Mary Campbell, Peter Coates and Nelson Wattie (his biographer). As well as a Mark Pirie series of illuminating works by artists Photo: Alistair and Meg Campbell with their dog (Peter Coates and Michael O’Leary Mozart, 2006; and below: c1950s EARLY DAYS among them), specially presented for the exhibition were other memorabilia, For Alistair Te Ariki Campbell rare books and magazines, poem drafts, poem-tributes by poets (including Fleur Early in my first semester Adcock, Albert Wendt, Vaine as a student, I looked at Rasmussen, Lynn Davidson, Rob New Zealand poetry Hack and Peter Bland) and photos from for the first time Alistair’s life. since High School and two books stood out: Baxter’s Collected Poems The exhibition has been on at Pataka and Alistair Campbell’s since 14 April where on the opening Collected Poems. A choice night, that included excellent speeches that could do me no wrong by Albert Wendt and , on the path to being a poet. was the launch of Nelson Wattie’s Both could be trusted introductory biographical sketch, for form and content, Scribbling in the Dark, published by humour and honesty. Steele Roberts in Wellington to coincide Alistair’s work with the exhibition. I read and re-read The curators and staff at Pataka and was enamoured by

Photo: The Dark Lords of Pukerua by Michael Museum have done a great job and the his hills, his life at Kapiti O’Leary (painting) exhibition has proved a success and will his personal sonnets and be touring Rarotonga later in the year at his elegies, so much so Perhaps the most moving part of the the invitation of the Cook Islands they became part of my exhibition was the recreation of Library and Museum, further proof of student existence – Alistair’s living room and writing desk, the esteem greeting Alistair’s work something that I wished to including his couch and chair and the throughout the Pacific. emulate if I was good family photos from its wall. Seated on enough. I wrote an essay on his the couch, I could view a screen display work and a review in Salient of rotating images from Alistair’s life, when his later Pocket including his friends (, Denis Collected Glover) and his family. Also included appeared; it was as if, were interactive short films and like in his poem, ‘Green’, his documentaries complete with headsets words for people to sit and watch. had come to me and knocked like a friend at my door. Below: Alistair Campbell with Sam Hunt They wouldn’t leave, of course, till I discovered more, They were ‘lilies on a green stem the small wind shakes.’

(from Poems for Poets by Mark Pirie, Photo: Mary Campbell, Peter Coates and Mark Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop, 2004) Pirie by Geraldine Earle

2 ...... Poetry Archive L E Scott THE FLY IN THE AMBER Classic New Zealand ALISTAIR TE ARIKI CAMPBELL poetry She was brilliant, yet so neat; a man who crossed over the sea She had shapely hands and feet; Was nicely bobbed, correctly up-to- The man who crossed over the sea This issue’s classic New Zealand poems date; lived in two worlds are by New Zealand-born writer, John And her darkly splendid eyes, in a time when the oral was changing to Barr. The poems included here are from Where the shadow flames and dies, the written his sole book, Men and Other Sins Took my breath away and nearly he was a poet from the sea (1927), which was discovered at the sealed my fate. womb of living things recent Heretaunga Book Fair by man walks on land PANZA member Mark Pirie. Book Like the moth unto the flame he reflected our footprints collector Rowan Gibbs sent us the At her beck once more I came. through discourse and winds of following information on Barr: I, the hitherto indomitable one, celebration And her talk of men and books, knowing we are spoken to by the voices He is not the early Otago poet John Added to her charming looks, of Barr of Craigielee, nor novelist Forced the ice of years to melt before tyrants, poets, dreamers and dead people John Barr ( lawyer) nor the sun. and how we struggle with the wisdom John M. Barr, an earlier Australian of courage journalist and writer. She could sing and jazz and play, John Barr trained as a printer then Knew each novel of the day, The poet who crossed over the sea became shipping reporter on the At the Shows she rode the jumps with came in childhood time Evening Post [Wellington], then a steady hand; and stayed until death Special Writer and Parliamentary She was sound on cigarettes, marching through human seasons Correspondent for the New Zealand On the racecourse made her bets, addressing our time in words and deeds Times. In 1906 he moved to In a way that not all shrewdies not with the pen of judgment but with Australia, joining the Daily understand. an open hand Telegraph in Sydney, then was swimming through human waters asked by James Edmund to join the But the worst is to relate, he saw madness and the beauty that Bulletin. And the story of my state comes from it He later edited the Sunday Times Of single, crabbed discontent I’ll sing: he knew the words of RD Laing [Sydney] and worked on Aussie When a happy chance I took nothing is mad in the questions of life magazine and as a freelance To inquire if she could cook, sometimes we just live on different journalist. He was one of the She said she’d never tried that sort of levels earliest writers of an Australian thing. within the rays from the moon film-script, co-writing ‘Australia and he knew – the sea sometimes pulls Calls’ with C. A. Jeffries. This, an Then my idol shrivelled, dead. away account of an invasion of Australia And my heart was swinging lead; from kissing the shore by Asiatics, screened in 1913. He Bitter loneliness was with me as of and he knew – the mind sometimes was a founder of the Australian yore; pulls way Journalists Association and Sydney Stately castles in the air from the head Press Club. Will, perforce, remain up there – and he knew – love is the warmest sea Published poems in Free Lance And I’m lodging where I used to lodge water then later short stories and poems in before. to bathe in Bulletin plus the humorous stories in Aussie collected in his one book. THE CROWDED TRAIN A man/poet crossed over the sea wrote some words Thanks Rowan for this important Last evening I hungered when you went on the human wave of life information. Barr’s poems are modern Along the carriage-way; the lilac scent, and touched us all in tone and outlook, often dealing with As hopelessly you sought a seat, love relationships, as befitting the 1920s Glowed to my heart. Your eager feet jazz period. Other popular subjects are Inspired – well, pagan thoughts (From ‘The Thursday Poem’, sailing and Australian city life. The And amorous dreams that may not come Arts and Entertainment section, edited editor of Aussie magazine wrote: again— by Tom Cardy, The Dominion Post, ‘Rugged are the stories he told, Unless, once more, we sardine in the 21 April 2011) rollicking the verses, piquant the train. paragraphs and poignant the epigrams.’

...... 3 Autumn 2011 QUIET SO A grey dawn mourning on a deep wave Press with Christchurch-born Pasifika breaking, writer and performance poet Tusiata Gossip is what we all despise – if we’re A lone gull on its crest; Avia, 20 November 2010. deaf. A rain cloud’s warning of a dark day wrote a poem-tribute for waking; Rhys on Beattie’s Book Blog; and a THE GIRL WHO CLIMBED A cold star in the West. revised version of the poem appears on THE HILL Words for Christchurch, the WINTER MORNINGS Christchurch City Libraries blog. The I watched her blown against the sky, as New Zealand Book Council also paid she swept up the hill Time has its revenge. tribute to Rhys in their newsletter With all her ribbons flying, and I That’s the worst of these alarm clocks. Booknotes, No. 172, Autumn 2011, whispered with a thrill: including the posthumous publication There goes the dearest lady BLUE PETER of Rhys’s article on the ‘culture of book (We’ll call her Kate O’Grady, reading groups’. The winsome Kit O’Grady) Kiss me, beloved, and swoon again to PANZA offers their deepest sympathy Hill. me, to Rhys’s family and friends at this The For there, on foremast, running free, time. Climbed Blue Peter flies – and I must go. Who Girl The clanging bell that will not be denied Donation from the The Clamors farewell, and, trembling-eyed, I see Blue Peter fly, and I must go. family of Marie Now, Marg’ret Street’s a pleasant street, a-lifting up from Town, Is love in vain? Does ecstasy of heart Weldon Parker And falls like ladled water to the ships Swell up and die when two must part? hat huddle down; Ask not of me. But this I know – And always there’s a lady, Blue Peter flies, and I must go. PANZA was delighted to receive a The winsome Kate O’Grady – donation of 20 poetry titles from the Swift eyes to Kit O’Grady – Publications by John Barr: family of the late Marie W. Parker, born Hill. Men and Other Sins (New Century 1925, died aged 79. The Press Ltd, Sydney, 1927). The donation also included photocopies Climbed of original poetry manuscripts by Marie. Who The family wrote: “The family of the Girl Young New Zealand late Marie Weldon Parker are very The happy to be able to donate Marie’s poet Rhys Brookbanks treasured collection of NZ poetry books, A fo’c’sle hand from water-front, for knowing they can be valued and two words he would kill – dies enjoyed in the years to come.” For half a word – in Marg’ret Street Here is one of the Marie’s poems (from he’d do it with a will; her typewritten manuscript): But he always lifts his “cadey” PANZA was saddened to hear that the To bonny Kate O’Grady young New Zealand poet Rhys Marie W. Parker To wind-blown Kit O’Grady – Brookbanks (1985-2011) has died in the Hill. Christchurch earthquake of Tuesday, 22 MY RULES The February 2011. Climbed Brookbanks, 25-years-old and a fresh If you want to marry me, here’s what Who journalism graduate, was a poet living you’ll have to do: Girl in Christchurch and working in the You must learn how to make a perfect The Canterbury TV building. His poems had chicken-dumpling stew. appeared in Deep South (2007), Takahe And you must sew my holey socks, CONTRASTS magazine, No. 71 (2010) and the Otago And soothe my troubled mind, Daily Times, and he edited and wrote an And develop the knack for scratching A soft light shining where my love lies editorial to the 2008 edition of Deep my back, dreaming, South, the Otago University poetry e- And keep my shoes spotlessly shined. Her stray sweet hair undressed; zine. In addition he had published And while I rest you must rake up the The silver lustre of the moonlight articles in The Press (Christchurch) and leaves streaming New Zealand Books, including (with And when it is hailing and snowing On a red gem at her breast. Vicki Anderson) an interview for The You must shovel the walk … and be

4 ...... Poetry Archive still when I talk, The Archive also contains photos and Dr Michael O’Leary - Archivist And – hey – where are you going? paintings of NZ poets, publisher’s (04) 905 7978 catalogues, poetry ephemera, posters, email: [email protected] PANZA thanks the family for their reproductions of book covers and other donation to the archive. memorabilia related to NZ poetry and Visits by appointment only poetry performance. Current PANZA Members: Recently received Wanted Mark Pirie (HeadworX), Roger Steele NZ poetry books (old & new) (Steele Roberts Ltd), Michael O’Leary donations Other NZ poetry items i.e. critical books (Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop) and on NZ poetry, anthologies of NZ poetry, (Original Books). poetry periodicals and broadsheets, Ron Morrow – Uncle Tom’s Poems: poetry event programmes, posters Current Friends of PANZA: Paul The Poems of Thomas Morrow. and/or prints of NZ poets or their poetry Thompson, Gerrard O’Leary and the books. New Zealand Poetry Society. The family of the late Marie Weldon Parker – 20 poetry titles plus DONT THROW OUT OLD NZ PANZA is a registered charitable trust photocopied poetry manuscripts by POETRY! SEND IT TO PANZA Marie Weldon Parker. PANZA will offer: Roger Steele – 20 poetry titles plus 33 • Copies of NZ poetry books for private issues of Islands literary journal. research and reading purposes. • Historical information for poets, Tony Beyer – The Drum Soloist by writers, journalists, academics, Tony Beyer. researchers and independent scholars of NZ poetry. John Quilter – 5 titles. • Photocopying for private research purposes. Mary Campbell – A Durable Fire by • Books on NZ poetry and literary Meg Campbell. history, and CD-ROMs of NZ poetry and literature Madeleine Marie Slavick – Something • CDs of NZ poets reading their work Beautiful Might Happen by Madeleine • Inspirational talks on NZ poets Marie Slavick and Shimao Shinzo. • Video/DVD/film screenings of documentaries on NZ poets Brett Cross – Percutio 09 poetry • Readings/book launches by NZ poets journal. • Educational visits for primary schools, intermediates, colleges, universities and Rowan Gibbs – 13 titles. creative writing schools/classes. • The Northland Writers’ Walk (in PANZA kindly thanks these donators to planning) the archive. You can assist the preservation of NZ poetry by becoming one of the Friends of the Poetry Archive of New About the Poetry Zealand Aotearoa (PANZA ). Archive If you’d like to become a friend or business sponsor of PANZA, please contact us. Poetry Archive of New Zealand Aotearoa (PANZA) Contact Details Poetry Archive of NZ Aotearoa PANZA contains (PANZA) 1 Woburn Road, Northland, Wellington A unique Archive of NZ published PO Box 6637, Marion Square, poetry, with around four thousand titles Wellington from the 19th century to the present Dr Niel Wright - Archivist day. (04) 475 8042 ...... 5