Issue 12 November 2013
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
broadsheet new new zealand poetry Issue No. 12, November 2013 Special Issue Editor: Mark Pirie THE NIGHT PRESS WELLINGTON / 1 Contents copyright 2013, in the names of the individual contributors Published by The Night Press Cover image: Masthead of the Star Every effort has been made to trace the copyright holders; the literary executors have proved untraceable. broadsheet is published twice a year in May and November Subscriptions to: The Editor Flat 4C/19 Cottleville Terrace Thorndon Wellington 6011 Aotearoa / New Zealand http://broadsheetnz.wordpress.com Cost per year $12.00 for 2 issues. Cheques payable to: HeadworX ISSN 1178-7805 (Print) ISSN 1178-7813 (Online) Please Note: At this stage no submissions will be read. The poems included are solicited by the editor. All submissions will be returned. Thank you. 2 / Contents PREFACE / 5 UNA AULD / 8 R D BROWN / 12 ALINE DUNN / 15 H S GIPPS / 16 H H HEATLEY / 17 BESSIE L HEIGHTON / 18 HONOR GORDON HOLMES / 21 E A IRWIN / 23 W J MCKELLOW / 26 PATRICIA PARKER / 27 T E L ROBERTS / 30 SHERRATT / 34 H TILLMAN / 36 IDA M WITHERS / 37 NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS / 39 / 3 Acknowledgements The poems included in this issue appeared in the Star on the below dates: Una Auld: The Mount, 4 August 1923 Easter Lilies, 11 April 1925 Star-Song, 3 February 1923 Beneath, 24 March 1923 R D Brown: The Great Out-Doors, 10 November 1923 Bellvue Spur, 28 July 1923 Aline Dunn: Glances, 19 April 1924 H S Gipps: After, 29 November 1924 H H Heatley: Inamorata, 11 August 1923 Bessie L Heighton: Nor-wester, 14 April 1923 The Old Rocker, 24 November 1923 Anzac Flowers, 3 May 1924 Sunrise, 23 August 1924 Willow Song, 1 November 1924 Memories, 22 March 1924 Autumn, 7 February 1925 Honor Holmes: Springtime in Pigeon Bay, 14 December 1923 Goodbye to Holmess Bay, 12 December 1924 E A Irwin: Midnight Over Okains Bay, 13 October 1923 Gods Garden, 30 August 1924 The Last Passage, 5 April 1924 W J McKellow: Home, 26 July 1924 Patricia Parker: The Awakening, 15 November 1924 Winter Music, 9 August 1924 Witchs Hill, 1 November 1924 T E L Roberts: Mount Pleasant, 30 August 1924 The Hills of Home, 24 April 1926 Sherratt: Maui Falls Before Hine-nui-te-po..., 24 May 1924 Tawhirimatea, the Storm God, 9 February 1924 H Tillman: Cracroft Hill, 12 May 1923 New Paths, 31 October 1925 Ida M Withers: A Canterbury Summer, 14 December 1923 4 / Preface Allen Curnow, New Zealands renowned poet, was also famous for believing almost nothing that [mattered] was added to New Zealands verse between 1906 and 1930. There were, however, others disagreeing with his hard judgement and those who perhaps knew better, e.g. Pat Lawlor, J H E Schroder, C A Marris and C R Allen. Curnows comment, from a 1968 Queensland conference paper reprinted in National Identities (Melbourne, 1970), relates to the 1926 Treasury of New Zealand Verse and the 1930 Kowhai Gold anthologies. It doesnt take in to account the full range of New Zealand poets operating nationally at that time. Yet Curnows view has maintained its authority over early New Zealand poets since his Caxton Book of New ZealandVerse appeared in 1945. Driven by Modernist tendencies and a revolt against the Romantic, Victorian and Georgian views of the period as well as amateur newspaper verses of poor quality, Curnows view held sway for varying reasons. Few recent national anthologists, however, have looked beyond his earlier Caxton and Penguin anthology selections in order to identify the narrowness that his canon of New Zealand poetry conveys. In the past few years, Ive continued to find early poets and poems of interest from 1915-30 during what I describe as the classic New Zealand poetry period. Its an interesting time period not fully done justice to by the anthology Kowhai Gold taking in the First World War and its aftermath and encompassing the decadence of the Twenties up to the start of the Depression in 1929. Ive now seen maybe a half of the poets from this period and there are still many more to hunt out. A closer examination of national newspapers in the National Library of New Zealands Papers Past digital archive reveals more poets than previously thought likely. Perhaps one of the most valuable discoveries so far (overlooked by contemporary literary historians and critics alike) is the Star group of poets of Christchurch 1922-26. (Not in Papers Past but available in micro film runs.) Recently I took a closer look at some of the local Star poets and unearthed over 200 poems from this period by nearly 40 poets operating in Canterbury, along with one or two visiting poets to / 5 Christchurch and contributors from other areas like Nelson, who took advantage of an open door policy on local submissions to the Christchurch Star. The Star was so keen on verse they ran regular doggerel columns (Spindrifts and Things Thoughtful) on top of their more serious Saturday poetry page, Among the Poets, which featured the poets Ive included here as well as overseas poets. Their local poetry content from late 1922 seems to have stopped by 1925 with T E L Roberts still appearing in 1926. There is evidence that some of the group originally published in the Ellesmere Guardian 1921-22 before moving on to the Star. Chief among them were Roberts, H H Heatley and Bessie L Heighton. Sherratt was the most prolific of the Star poets. The Star was not a prestigious literary paper like The Press orThe Sun but was a favourite of film/theatre/arts followers and sportsmen who eagerly anticipated seeing their names in weekly write-ups. The poets of the Star do turn out to be a diverse group of varying occupations and ages and of more than amateur versifying quality. Businessmen, a farmer, a mill hand, a policeman, an actor, a sportsman, married women and spinsters, young educated women, and others were among the contributors of Star verses. Some were mere children/teenagers like Honor Gordon Holmes aged 12-13; others are well-known like Tom Bracken and Bettie Riddell. What the poems do show is a significant group of writers who took their art seriously in a New Zealand context like other poets or groups around the country well before the emergence of the Caxton Press, a national literary journal like Landfall, and the South Island myth. Their poems were at home with the local context and the places they visited and were not overly nationalist in intent. How odd Curnows earlier view seems when you encounter a group of writers as admirable as the Star poets. As theyve been overlooked till now, it seems commendable to make their work available to the public again in a special issue of broadsheet. I hope you enjoy the verses as much as I did when making this compilation. Mark Pirie Wellington, November 2013 6 / The Star Poets 1922-26 / 7 Una Auld T H E M O U N T O, sometimes when the rain is swift, And stings upon my face, And wild winds send my soul adrift Beyond all time and space, I find again that surging shore, Bound by the rock-bound tide, And dream beneath its spell once more Of nothing else beside! Or when the lotus winds sing low, From valley to high hill, And soft and slow the long hours go Till all the world is still: I see beyond the veil of gold, The gorse flings far and wide, To where the path winds, worn and old, Against the mountain side! For rains may cut, and winds may kiss, And birds sing evermore I only know one song I miss, One sound I listen for To hear the pines go crooning deep Above the breakers roar, While on the Mount the thin mists creep Along the tide-swung shore! 8 / And so though life goes swiftly on, It cannot from me take The thought of that far shore whereon The great green rollers break; No matter what the years may name, My heart will keep for me, The gnarled pohutukawas flame Against a grey-washd sea! E A S T E R L I L I E S O, still they dwell beneath that sky (A Man rose who went forth to die ) The twisted pathways on the hill Flower with grave-eyed lilies still, And shores are soft by Galilee As when a Voice called, Follow Me! Grass is as green, and birds as sweet, As when the Master trod the street, And stars look down, all silver, still, On to a dark and lonely hill, And we, who never saw Him, cry: (A man rose, who went forth to die!) / 9 S T A R - S O N G When the world is very young, Splashed with blue and gold, And the birds pour out the song That is never old; Then I watch the slender trees, And the sunlit green, And sing the song of seven seas With little laughs between! But I love the shadows deep On the tall, high hill, When the strange, small winds creep out, And the world is still. Then I close my eyes and wait, Till the white stars swing, And whisper to my breathless heart The song the flowers sing! If you listen very hard You may hear it too Filled with crooning, happy sounds, Wet with moon-steeped dew. Only dream a little while, When the white stars swing, And youll hear within your heart The song the flowers sing! 10 / B E N E A T H They say it is just a flower I am giving you Born in worlds of wonder Of flaming day and dew.