. . . Poetry Notes

Winter 2015 Volume 6, Issue 2

ISSN 1179-7681 Quarterly Newsletter of PANZA

1885: this is the date on his birth Inside this Issue Welcome registration. For some reason Harris himself gave his birth year as 1886 on Hello and welcome to issue 22 of more than one occasion, including on Welcome Poetry Notes, the newsletter of PANZA, his attestation for military service in 1 the newly formed Poetry Archive of 1916. He was the only child of Walter Rowan Gibbs New Zealand Aotearoa. Harris, a storeman, and his wife Sophy on Dick Harris Poetry Notes will be published quarterly (Sophia) Magdalena, née Jansen, who and will include information about married on October 2nd 1882. Dick goings on at the Archive, articles on described himself as “half Dane – on his Obituary: John O’Connor historical New Zealand poets of interest, mother’s side; one quarter Scotch, one 7 occasional poems by invited poets and a quarter English – on his father’s side”. Classic New Zealand record of recently received donations to His parents divorced in 1902 when poetry by Jean Hamilton the Archive. Walter admitted fathering two children 11 Lennox Articles and poems are copyright in the with another woman, and the same year names of the individual authors. Sophia married John Broughton; they The newsletter will be available for free lived in Brooklyn, Wellington, until her Comment on Edward download from the Poetry Archive’s Skelton Garton death in 1930. website: 12 “Dick” was a school nickname that “he decided fitted his character better than Comment on Geoffrey http://poetryarchivenz.wordpress.com 13 Pollett Edwin, and has accordingly retained”. He left school at thirteen and started Comments on Helen work in a Wellington timber-mill, then Bascand and Paul Hill Rowan Gibbs on took up an apprenticeship as a harness 14 maker. This he was forced to leave after New publications by Dick Harris a year when he led a strike, and he PANZA members found a job as a delivery boy. More congenial work in various architects’

Wellington writer, researcher and offices followed and he studied art and Donate to PANZA through bibliographer Rowan Gibbs discusses architecture, and now began reading PayPal 16 the New Zealand poet Dick Harris widely and writing. In 1907 he was

(1885-1926). working on the New Zealand Mail, Recently received edited by Fred Booty, who became donations The birth date of New Zealand Dick’s “hero and idol”, as Singer tells journalist and poet Dick Harris is given us. When Booty was dismissed and sent About the Poetry Archive in the Oxford Companion to New back to Sydney Dick decided to follow Zealand Literature as 1887. However, him and was fortunate to get a sub- this seems to be the result of confusion editorship on an architectural magazine. with a Richard Edward Harris, a fruit But Booty turned to forging £5 notes PANZA farmer born in 1887, who died the same and when Dick was caught passing one 1 Woburn Road year as the poet. both were arrested. He pleaded guilty Northland The poet was born Edward Walter and was released on probation, Wellington 6012 Harris in Wellington on November 19th

...... Winter 2015 prudently deciding to return to New Services Association; the nominal editor ‘Chanson Triste de Pierrot’; poem in Zealand. was the general secretary Douglas The Worker (Wagga, NSW), 20 May He had taken to Sydney an introduction Seymour but Harris did the work. He 1909, p.27. from Frank Morton to A. G. Stephens, later worked as a copywriter for Gordon who published several of Harris’s & Gotch, and early in 1926 was ‘Song’; poem in The Worker (Wagga, poems in his Bookfellow. Back in New reported to be working on a new NSW), 29 July 1909, p.21. Zealand in 1910 his verse collection collection of poems. His last job was in Monodies was published, subsidised by Palmerston North on the Manawatu ‘Lavender’; poem in The Worker his friend, lawyer Richard Singer. Standard: a colleague, Geoffrey (Wagga, NSW), 16 December 1909, Singer also found him a position writing Webster, writing to Pat Lawlor in 1943, p.21. Included in an article ‘Australian humorous paragraphs for the New when Lawlor was planning a book on Poems Selected by their Authors’, Zealand Herald, which earned him £3 a Harris, offered to contribute “a which includes interesting week for two days’ work. But, Singer discreditable chapter on Dick’s almost autobiographical details by Harris, says, he had too great a fondness for last days in Palmerston North… which are drawn on above. Speight’s ale… He had another stint in intimate and boozey… I can see his Sydney in architectural work and large dark eyes now. He was near his ‘Singing Youth’; poem in The Bulletin, journalism, then spent several months as end in those days… but still a lovable 7 April 1910, p.3. Opens: “When a fencer in the backblocks of Hawke’s fellow”. eighteen years had found me”. Bay, “a most pleasant and beneficial He died suddenly in Wellington experience,” he said, “which I would be Hospital on December 14th 1926 Monodies: A Book of Verse. Printed by glad to repeat”. He also worked on the following an appendicitis operation. His Whitcombe and Tombs; privately Hawke’s Bay Herald in Napier, then death certificate gives the cause of death published by the author in Napier, 1910. moved to Australia to join the Sydney as “appendix abscess / intestinal (This was subsidised by Wellington Mail, and later returned to New Zealand obstruction”; he is buried in the Soldiers lawyer and poet Richard Singer.) 70 as a sub-editor on the Auckland section of Karori Cemetery. copies in brown paper, priced at 5s.; 125 Observer. We hear little over the years of Harris’s copies bound in imitation vellum priced In Wellington in 1914 he married Olive character or personality, though Pat as 7s 6d. The book is online at Avice Fifield Reeve, and they settled in Lawlor called him “a strange man, http://bit.ly/1BMmgTx Christchurch when he was made loved by his friends, although he did not Contents (asterisk indicates also in assistant editor of the Christchurch Sun. readily make friends – personal Poems, 1927): ‘Retrospect’; They had no children and Olive died of friends”. Some reviewers of his first ‘Crepuscule’*; ‘Lavender’*; ‘Late tuberculosis in June 1916, aged 27. book of poems found him lugubrious Afternoon’*; ‘At Dusk’*; ‘Ships at He served in the New Zealand Rifle and morbid, but most discounted this as Sea’*; ‘Song’ (“Lady for you I Brigade from September 1916, and was a young man’s posing, and there is no promise”); ‘After Grief’; ‘Ships that wounded in France in December 1917. evidence to confirm the remark of a Pass’; ‘The Crazy Pilgrim’; ‘Rondel’ On the voyage out in mid-1917 he modern critic that his death was suicide. (‘El Dorado’)*; ‘At Night’ (“Was it the contributed to the troopship magazine whisper of the rain…”)*; ‘On All Souls’ Waitemata Wobbler, and on the Tentative (and far from complete) Eve’*; ‘Exile’; ‘Dawn’*; ‘The Cry of ‘Rimutaka’ on the way home in 1919 he Bibliography (in date order) Pan’*; ‘Singing Youth’*; ‘Evening’; edited the ship’s magazine Napoo. His ‘Lament’*; ‘Cradle Song’*. military file tells us he was 5 ft 6 1/2 in., ‘Chant-Royal of the Quaint Regulation’; 161 lb., hair black, eyes blue, poem in The Bulletin, 14 January 1909, Reviews: complexion sallow, C of E, scar below p.39. Opens: “A grinding infamy the Dominion, 3 December 1910, p.9 (“The left knee, and healthy apart from mild life we lead;”. author of this little book is new to us… tachycardia, “probably due to tea and evidence of enough originality and tobacco”. Richard Singer in his article ‘At Dusk’; poem in The Worker sincerity…”). describes him as “tall and gangly; his (Wagga, NSW), 21 January 1909, p.27. The Evening Post, 17 December 1910, head of hair was thick and heavy, his p.17 (“a volume worth while… if only forehead high and wide; his eyelids ‘In Exile’; poem in The Bulletin, 18 for the author’s promise of future were large and often closed, and his March 1909, p.3. Opens: “A ship went fulfillment”) eyes when open seemed almost too big out of port last night,”. New Zealand Herald, 24 December for the lids. His nose was massive and 1910, p.4 (“…vivid suggestion of still curved; the ever-present absence of one ‘The Crazy Pilgrim’; poem in The latent power”). large upper tooth seemed to add gusto to Worker (Wagga, NSW), 25 March The Worker (Wagga, NSW), 29 his magnificent laugh”. 1909, p.27. December 1910, p.21 (“In his best On his return to New Zealand he was poems Dick Harris feels the emotions appointed associate editor of Quick ‘Twilit Days’; poem in The Worker he expresses and makes the reader feel March; the magazine of the Returned (Wagga, NSW), 6 May 1909 p.27.

2 ...... Poetry Archive them. He will do better work than in this Association. Harris was appointed ‘A Cruel Distinction’; humorous book if journalism leaves him time…” associate editor in 1919. This is online anecdote by Pat Lawlor in Aussie, 12 The Bookfellow – unseen: reprinted in part at Auckland City Library: February 1926, NZ Section p.ix: “To Daily Herald (Adelaide), 17 December http://ourboys.recollect.co.nz my friend Dircke Jansen I confided I 1910, p.13 and elsewhere (“…the contemplated bringing out, in book eternal sorrows of brooding youth that ‘Rondeau (To a lady on meeting after form, some of the best of my humorous has not yet found its place in the many years)’; poem in Aussie, 14 July stories. Dircke didn’t look a bit cosmos. Mr Harris has a voice small 1923, NZ Section p.vii. impressed. ‘Why man,’ I cried and weak, yet his plaintive piping is not indignantly, ‘a book of my funny stories without charm…”: A. G. Stephens). ‘Art v. Nationalism’, by Dircke Jansen, would sell like fish and chips.’. ‘With Manawatu Standard, 14 January 1911, article in Aussie, 15 March 1924, NZ fish and chips, you mean, old man,’ p.3 (“the pleasantest and most original Section p.ix. Does New Zealand have a replied Dircke sadly”. verse of its kind that has appeared in “national consciousness… this is still a New Zealand for a long time past…”: land of butter fat and Rugby ‘Attitudes’; poem in The Triad, 1 March Frank Morton). football…”. 1926, p.42. Opens: “‘Man is,’ I said, ‘a Otago Daily Times, 1 March 1911, p.2 sport of freakish chance,’”. (“world-weary pessimism, ‘Euphemistic Journalism’, by Dircke yet…surely… a pose… Mr Harris sings Jansen, article in Aussie, 15 March ‘Triolet’; poem in The Triad, 1 May very sweetly with true poetic rhythm”). 1924, NZ Section p.ix. Discusses some 1926, p.10. Opens: “Save goblin-gold words misused by journalists. we grasp in vain,”. Poem (title unknown) in The Forerunner, No.18 (1913?). Pat Lawlor ‘The Uncritical Attitude’, by Dircke ‘Crack O’ Doom’; poem in The Triad, 1 mentions he has seen a poem by Harris Jansen, article in Aussie, 15 July 1924, May 1926, p.16. Opens: “Curt, and as in this issue of the periodical, published NZ Section p.ix. Discusses the criticism sudden as a trumpet blast,”. in Havelock North by ‘The Havelock of poetry, largely re Henry Lawson and Work’ crafts and cultural group. Hugh McCrae. ‘Proverbial Dubieties’, by Dircke Jansen; poem in Aussie, 15 May 1926, Waitemata Wobbler. Troopship ‘Jazzled’, by Dircke Jansen; poem in NZ Section p.ii. Opens: “On a stone magazine of the 21st Reinforcements, Aussie, 15 August 1924, NZ Section that has gathered its moss where it N.Z.E.F., on board the Waitemata. p.iv. Opens: “A most inoffensive and stayed,”. Printed in Capetown, 1917. Edited by ordinary dub”. Lieut. F. A. De La Mare, assisted by Sgt ‘Captain Cook’s Beer’, by Dircke Albert Rowland and Lance Cpl E. W. ‘The Wharves’; poem in The Jansen; article in Aussie, 15 May 1926, Harris. The magazine is online at: Bookfellow (Sydney), 29 November NZ Section p.ii. http://www.bl.uk/collection- 1924, p.36. Opens: “I grope, items/waitemata-wobbler# confounded by the Blare”. ‘What is a Journalist’ – Dircke Jansen’s According to a note in the Observer, 9 answer quoted by Lawlor in Aussie, 15 June 1917, p.4, Harris wrote the poem ‘Up and Down George Street!’; poem in May 1926, NZ Section p.ix: “one who ‘Chanson Triste de la Mer’, which is The Bookfellow (Sydney), 31 December knows everything about nothing”. signed “L.P.H. [and] E.W.H.”. 1924, p.65. Opens: “O, City of the myriad Eyes!”. ‘Hic Jacet’; poem in The Bulletin Napoo, Published as a record of the (Sydney), 1 July 1926, p.7. homecoming of 700 demobilised diggers ‘Introduction’, pp.[5]-9, to Maori Tales, Opens: ‘There where love vanished by the S.S. Rimutaka, which left A Collection of Over One Hundred grief shall also go.’ Plymouth, April 5th, 1919, and arrived Stories, written and collected by Pat at Wellington, May 27th, 1919. Printed Lawlor. Sydney: New Century Press, ‘Sonnet’; poem in The Triad, 1 August in Wellington by Lankshears Limited, 1926. 1926, p.57. Opens: “How little printers, 1919. This is online at meaning, since the cold eclipse”. Auckland Museum: ‘Chant Royal of the Men Who http://bit.ly/11i3VNj Dreamed’; poem in The Bulletin, 14 ‘This Also is Vanity’; criticism in The Edited by Harris, who, according to a January 1926, p.47. Opens: “Brothers, Bulletin, 12 August 1926, p.2 (Red note in the Observer, 9 August 1919, to no high note our chant is keyed,”. Page). p.4, wrote the poem ‘Ballade of Times Past’ under the name “Corporal ‘Since Youth Must Know’; poem in The ‘Adam, Pan and the Lady’ by Dircke Dinkum”. Bulletin, 28 January 1926, p.17. Jansen; short story in Aussie, 14 August Opens: “Long since, dear lass, I’ve had 1926, NZ Section p.iii. Quick March. Journal of the New my fling”. Zealand Returned Servicemen’s

...... 3 Winter 2015 ‘When the Sneaky Errors Creep’ by edited by Pat Lawlor, who proudly Vol.1, No.4 (August 1929), p.18 [but Dircke Jansen; poem in Aussie, 14 reported that the book had made a profit earlier published in Triad, above]. August 1926, NZ Section p.ix. and funds were paid to Dick’s mother. Contents (asterisk indicates also in ‘Peradventure?’ (“A hitherto ‘Wise Man or Fool’, by Dircke Jansen; Monodies): ‘Hic jacet mortalis’; ‘At unpublished poem by the late Dick humorous military anecdote in Aussie, Night’ (“Was it the whisper…”)*; Harris”), New Zealand Artists’ Annual, 14 August 1926, NZ Section p.iii. ‘Sappho’; ‘Nocturne’; ‘Unsought’; Vol.2, No.1 (December 1930), p.25. ‘Beauty’s Urn’; ‘To Atthis’; ‘Ballade of ‘A Long Time Ago’; poem in The Youth’s Day’; ‘Chant Royale’; ‘Since ‘The Christmas Gift to Mary’; short Bulletin, 26 August 1926, p.47. Youth Must Know’; ‘Chimes’; story in Droll Stories Magazine, Vol.1, Opens: “Oh, life was but a lilt once, set ‘Mirage’; ‘Anzac Day’; ‘Vain Beauty’; No.1 (December 1930), pp.26-28. for lightsome feet,”. ‘N.Z. to America’; ‘Retrospect’*; ‘Attitudes’; ‘If I Had a Son’; ‘Pantoum’; ‘Adam, Pan, and the Lady’; short story ‘When the Sneaky Errors Creep’ by ‘Twilight in Autumn’ (from Henri de reprinted in New Zealand Short Stories, Dircke Jansen; poem in Aussie, 15 Regnier); ‘In the Bush’; ‘Triolets’ (“Be ed. O.N. Gillespie. London: Dent, 1930; September 1926, NZ Section p.ix. kindly and reflect…”; “Who first in the story was first published in Aussie. practice…”; “Where ashes are…”; ‘The High-Explosive Myth’, by Dircke “Each uplifts a dewy face…”; “Save Kowhai Gold: An Anthology of Jansen; poem in Aussie, 15 October goblin-gold we grasp in vain,”; “If I Contemporary New Zealand Verse, 1926, NZ Section p.iii. should ask no more than this…”); edited by Quentin Pope. London: J.M. ‘Villanelle’; ‘Rondel’ (‘El Dorado’*; Dent & Sons Ltd, 1930. This included ‘The Christmas Gift to Mary’, by ‘Still there’s sunshine’); ‘Rondeau’ [in three poems by Harris: ‘At Night’, Dircke Jansen; short story in Aussie, 15 fact by Austin Dobson; see below]; ‘Rondel’, and ‘Ships that Pass’. November 1926, NZ Section p.42. ‘Invictus’; ‘Lavender’*; ‘Ships at Sea’*; ‘Late Afternoon’*; ‘All Night’ (“All Richard Singer’s article, ‘Forgotten Poet ‘If I Had a Son’; poem in The Bulletin alone I lie…”); ‘On All Souls’ Eve’*; – or Two’, Southerly 21/2 (1961) pp.2- (Christmas edition), 11 December 1926, ‘Crepuscule’*; ‘At Dusk’*; ‘Ships that 10, included three poems by Harris: p.48. Opens: “Oh the dawn’s a-greying Pass’*; ‘Singing Youth’*; ‘Cradle – To V.L.S’ p.5 [the dedication poem in up on the starboard quarter,”. Song’*; ‘Lament’*; ‘The Cry of Pan’*; Monodies]. ‘Dawn’*; ‘Exile’. – ‘What the Hell Do You Think of It ‘The Origin of Titles’, by Dircke Now?’ p.6. Jansen; article in Aussie 15 December Reviews: – ‘On All Souls’ Eve’; pp.8-9. 1926, NZ Section p.v. The Evening Post, 5 November 1927, p.21 (pointing out that the Rondeau on ‘Pantoum: For Anzac Day’; poem in ‘A Moral Tale’, by Dircke Jansen; poem p.47 differs in only two words from a When ANZAC Day Comes Around: The in Aussie 15 December 1926, NZ poem by Austin Dobson; apologetic 100 Years From Gallipoli Poetry Section p.xi. letters by Mona Tracy and Pat Lawlor Project, compiled by Graeme Lindsay. appeared in the Evening Post, 12 Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, Forty New Zealand Artists’ Annual, 1 November 1927, p.21, saying that they South Publishing, 2015. (December 1926) – Harris was found a handwritten copy of the poem associated with Pat Lawlor and Ken among Harris’s papers and assumed it Items about Harris Alexander in producing this and had was by him) several contributions in the first issue: Auckland Star, 12 November 1927, p.24 The Worker (Wagga, NSW), 25 March ‘Chimes’, poem, p.1; ‘Two Triolets’, (“…Harris was a sweet singer with a 1909, p.27: “Dick Harris, whose verse is poems, p.12; ‘A Policeman’s Life’, genuine gift for verse. He was neither favorably known to Worker readers, short story, pp.14-15; ‘Rondel’, poem, original nor deep, but he had a feeling intends to publish a book of verse p.18; ‘The Voice of the Cities’, poem, and an unusual sense of beauty…”) towards the end of the year. Harris is p.25; ‘A Maoriland Alphabet’, humour, The Bulletin, 4 April 1928, p.2, by one of the most promising of the by Lawlor and “Dircke Jansen”, pp.26-7 Nettie Palmer. younger verse-writers of Australasia”. (“…K is for Kiwi, a bird which, absurdly, / Is wingless, and otherwise ‘Middle Age’; poem in New Zealand The Worker (Wagga, NSW), 20 May very unbirdly”); ‘Spring’s Illusions’, Artists’ Annual, 2 (December 1927) 1909, p.27: “Howard Carr, musical poem, p.31, by “Dircke Jansen”. p.16. director of the Williamson Opera Company, has been telling a New The Poetry of Dick Harris. Sydney: ‘The Crack O’ Doom’ (“An Zealand interviewer of his intention to New Century Press , 1927 unpublished poem by the late Dick prepare a Maori cantata. ‘That brilliant Introduction by Mona Tracy and tribute Harris”), New Zealand Artists’ Annual boy Dick Harris has written the poem… by Pat Lawlor. Posthumous collection Carr is now at work on a choric ode also

4 ...... Poetry Archive written by Harris, and has lately Margaret Lockyer, From Another Angle pp.151-2; appreciation of Harris pp.206- composed music for a cradle song and a (London: Duckworth, 1921): “It seems 9 (“one of the greatest, if not the morning song by the same writer…’” that the war actually killed admirable greatest poet New Zealand has young talent in many cases. It would be produced…”); mentions R.A. Singer The Worker (Wagga, NSW), 8 July easy to mention Australian writers who paying for the printing of Monodies. 1909, p.21: “A writer in the New have done nothing good since their Zealand ‘Triad’ declares of Dick return from active service. Mr. Dick Pat Lawlor, New Zealand Railways Harris’s newspaper published verse that Harris, positively the most original and Magazine February 1937, p.52, states: ‘it is probably the best verse ever promising of all Australasian writers of “A well known New Zealand journalist written in Australasia by so young a verse before the war, is quietly editing a is busy on a biography of Dick Harris, man.’ (Harris is twenty-two.) It is not soldiers’ paper in New Zealand, writing the New Zealand poet”. Who this was is easy to judge on this point, either for no verse at all, apparently attempting no unknown. past or present, nor is it really sort of creative work.” necessary. Harris’s verse is consistently Geoffrey Webster. Letter to Pat Lawlor, the kind to take and be thankful, Obituaries: 11 November 1943 (Turnbull Library regardless of his age or youth.” The Evening Post, 15 December 1926, MSS: 77-067-6/28). p.13; The Press 15 December 1926, ‘Writers and Writing. Literary Notes p.21; The Sun (Christchurch), date Pat Lawlor. Books and Bookmen, New and Verses. The “Hacked” Poet’, unknown, by Mona Tracy (calling Zealand and Overseas. Wellington: Maryborough and Dunolly Advertiser Harris “Singer of the Shadows”); Whitcombe & Tombs, 1954. Lawlor (Victoria, Australia), 12 January 1914, The Bulletin, date unknown says surprisingly little of Harris here, p.1: Discussion of Harris’s life and ‘Dircke Jansen, Farewell’; Aussie, 15 and that mainly in connexion with work, “… In some respects Harris is a February 1927, NZ Section p.viii, by Frank Morton. peculiar personality. His prose writings Lawlor (revealed the Jansen pen name would never lead to the belief that he for the first time: Harris would not write Richard Singer, ‘Forgotten Poet – or wrote verse, least of all such “poetry of humorous material for Aussie under his Two’, Southerly 21/2 (1961), pp.2-10. twilight” as is contained in his modest real name; Frank Morton called him the little volume, “Monodies – a book of finest lyrist New Zealand had ever Roger Robinson and Nelson Wattie eds. verse.” The average reader of this produced; “I prefer to remember Dick, The Oxford Companion to New Zealand booklet would probably picture the not as the Edgar Allan Poe of N.Z., but Literature. Melbourne: Oxford author as a large-eyed dreamer, as our Mark Twain, masquerading University Press, 1998: sympathetic surrounded by a halo of “old grief” and under that wonderful pen name…”). article on Harris (“a poet of lyric the wistful expression of one ever melancholy and considerable technical searching for a land “bountiful with Memorial notice in The Evening Post, accomplishment”) by Roger Robinson; beauty adream on drowsy flowers.” And 14 December 1928, p.1: “HARRIS.—In Patrick Evans in his article on Pat so “a lot of people have (he says), affectionate memory of Edwin (Dick) Lawlor refers to “Harris’s suicide”. expressed surprise on meeting me, not Harris, who passed away on the 14th expecting to find a lean, hard, wiry December, 1926. Inserted by his Joanna Woods. Facing the Music: person with a lean, hard dial.” … The friends, K. and V. Alexander [Ken Charles Baeyertz and the Triad. volume won him some well-deserved Alexander was a close friend and Dunedin: Otago University Press, 2008: tributes, but some of the eulogies were illustrated the cover of Harris’s second pp.133-4 on Harris becoming a too much for the super-sensitive soul. book]”; and a similar memorial notice contributor to the Triad – ““a pensive He has a natural loathing of the following year, The Evening Post, young Wellingtonian, whom Charles superlatives, and the knowledge of what 14 December 1929, p.1. [Baeyertz] considered one of the best had been predicted for him caused the poets in Australasia. At twenty-one, poet to feel like an apologetic advertiser May 1930: letter from Frank Harris Dick Harris, who was one of New when offering verse after that…”. praising H’s verse (untraced). Zealand’s few home-grown ‘decadents’, had a disturbing preoccupation with Observer, 13 May 1916, p.4: Pat Lawlor. Confessions of a Journalist, death. [Frank] Morton called him ‘the “Dick Harris is a New Zealander, and with Observations on Some Australian oldest young man I have ever met’. our premier poet. His book of verse, & New Zealand Writers. Auckland: Unlike some others, however, Harris’s ‘Monodies,’ contained some of the Whitcombe & Tombs, 1935. world-weary stance was not just a finest verse ever turned out in this land. Several references to Harris – “one of fashionable pose. For weeks on end, he ‘The Cry of Pain’ [sic] contained the finest friendships I have ever would retreat to his tiny book-lined therein was nothing short of a known… stories, poems and articles… room in the Wellington suburb of masterpiece…”. under his ‘Aussie’ pen name of ‘Dircke Brooklyn to wrestle with depression…”. Jansen’; poem by Harris on misprints, ‘When the Sneaky Errors Creep’

...... 5 Winter 2015 Poems by Dick Harris I laughed yesterday! I was bitter of heart; From a dolorous day comes my dolorous I laughed at your laughter: you know not plaint. TWILIT DAYS the smart My eyes growing dim and my pulse Of passion forsaken, distressed, and going faint, Here comes no light, no splendor of the bereft A-thirsting for love, and a-hungered for sun, Of kind eyes and of comforting kisses bread, Where I in sombre silence dream alone and joy. I hark to the slow-dripping raindrops that My life an arabesque in monotone. You left me – joy left me – now what fall, I see without regret the nothing done, have I left. Thinking at times that I hear your light The faded years that drooped sans joy or But a sorrow to die for, a grief to employ tread... moan, In singing this song for you, You that could solace and care not at all. The wraith-fulfilment of the half-begun. Crying night-long for you, And end to all kissing now, Wistful and slow, the days drift one by Praying all day for you, lonely of heart! No more caressing now, one Loving nor laughing! ... ah, dolorous As mist enfolding me, all listless grown. From the lonely of heart flees sunlight plaint! away, Real are the dreams and life but shadow- No glamor is born them of sweet Ah well, what matters it, precious land. summer’s day. Pierrette! Vague monodies enthral me, quiet song Living for laughter, we loved, you and I, I am a-dying, and I will forget. Of far and faint emotion long since Once on a time, when a braver sun You have forgotten, and singing go by... banned, shone. I’ll sigh and go by ere to-morrow is born. The ceaseless noise and moaning of the Alas! but you left me a heart-ache to (Could you but come to me, come ere I throng. sigh, die, Through tyrannies of Time men pass Left nothing beside – and the sunlight is Die all forsaken, forgotten, forlorn!) along... gone. Sighing I cry for you, Hushed in eternal Quietude I stand. Chill is the room for me, Dying I sigh for you, Sad is the gloom for me, Dear dainty lady, delicious Pierrette! (from The Worker (Wagga, NSW), Lonely of heart with the sunshine away. 6 May 1909, p.27) (from The Worker (Wagga, NSW), 20 Dear little lady, delicious Pierrette, May 1909, p.27) Are you not weary of worshippers yet – CHANSON TRISTE DE PIERROT Weary of turmoil and raiment and rings? Are you not sorry that days that were ours CHANSON TRISTE DE LA MER Dear little lady, delicious Pierrette, Are one with all other dead, glorious List to me lonely who wearily fret things? From tattoo to reveille, from dawning Just for a touch of your merry, mad Are you not sad for the rhythmical hours until dark, mouth, When you would sue to me, There’s nothing else to see except the Just for a sight of your whimsical eyes... When you were true to me? sea – Thirsting for love, here I suffer a drouth – Have you forgotten, delicious Pierrette? A windy waste of water monotonously All the day’s bitterness made of my sighs. stark – I lie and I sigh for you, I lie all forsaken, I sigh all forlorn, It seems a frightful waste of so much Dying I cry for you, All hopeless and wan in the pallor of sea. Exquisite lady, delicious Pierrette! dawn. You will not come to me, not though I The “deep and dark blue ocean” that ’Midst wonder of worship and splendor cry Byron saw, you’d think of gold, Calling and pleading. You never will Must have been a sea he saw from You swing to suave music, and here am I hear; shore. – cold – You will not come to me, not though I It can’t be made to lather, and it isn’t fit Lying a-sighing where shadows are grim. die... to drink, And ghastly and ghostly, a sick little And, lady of laughter, Death travels a- And it hasn’t any end – there’s always moon near. more. Pales the faint candles that glimmer so Pale candles low-burning dim – Set gaunt shadows turning You stand to aft or for’ard, you lounge Wavering, dying, as I shall die soon. To mock me forsaken who sigh all about the deck, And you come no more to me, forlorn. And pass the time by staring at the sea; Come never more to me? Your soul is sick of seascape, untouched Lady of worship ’mid splendor of gold! by spot or speck, But all that you can see is just the sea.

6 ...... Poetry Archive On Greenland’s icy mountains, in any And it’s oh! for the girls we have left Most of these verses were unpublished other scenes, behind! in journals. While the booklets show a Just so, it’s somewhere else you’d rather general lack of thematic clarity and be. Envoi. subjects range from English moors to The sea you see with loathing; you could Prince, wherever your path be set, Asian T’ang Dynasty times, the poetry pray for submarines, That this is truth you will surely find – provides some evidence of his early Just to save you from the boredom of The happiest sigh and the best regret ideas of poetry. O’Connor was not the sea. Is oh! for the girls we have left behind! attracted to the music of his rock and roll era but was attracted to Asian forms (from Waitemata Wobbler (1917)) CORPORAL DINKUM. and British Modernist forms from the outset, and perhaps Imagists like BALLADE OF TIMES PAST (from Napoo (1919)) Aldington and Pound. Others on his reading list were Herman Hesse and Isabelle, Minchen, Louise, Ricquette, Christopher Brennan, yet he wasn’t at Reiby, Ethel, Manon, Margot, Obituary: John this time an avid reader of American How shall I think of you sans regret, postmodernism. Now you are one with the long ago? O’Connor, 1949-2015 O’Connor was a rhymester and school It’s hey! for to-morrow and all its gold – teacher in much of his early satiric and For love and laughter are still to find – nonsense children’s poetry and in his But yesterday is a tale that is told; next volumes of the 1980s, Laying And it’s oh! for the girls we have left Autumn’s Dust (new expanded edition) behind! and Citizen of No Mean City, he looked to make a general distinction between Isabelle dreams in a Devon town, verse (rhymes) and poetry (freer Where life runs smooth and time runs Modernist and haiku forms). slow; Throughout the 1980s, O’Connor was Minchen, with merry, bright eyes of an increasingly committed verse satirist brown, and his two ’80s volumes collect most Lives where the Rhine’s wide waters of his satiric output as does the little flow. known broadside Don’t Kick Me, I’ll And one is shy and the other is bold, Kick You (self published, 1986). The But both are darlings much to my On May 12, the New Zealand poet and National Library copy is numbered 3 of mind – editor, John O’Connor, left us. 6. In later years, O’Connor felt this Ah, me! some say that the heart grows I’ve written a summary of his poetry tendency for satire held him back in cold – activities 1973-2015. New Zealand poetry circles and sought But it’s oh! for the girls we have left It’s not certain when O’Connor started to move on from squibs. A number behind! writing poetry but his selection in an focused on local politicians, poets and anthology of 1960s/1970s poetry writers, and he felt people reacted I sigh, of course, yet I count it gain provides some clues. poorly to it rather than seeing it in the To have known Marie of Merieux, The anthology Real Fire, selected by fun spirit intended. And sweet-voiced Louise of far Fontaine; Bernard Gadd, which appeared after Big Towards the end of the decade, he Manon of Famechon, too. Heigho! Smoke in 2001, sought to recapture a founded the journal plainwraps (1989- Riquette, Rouen! Till this flesh turns number of fine New Zealand poets 1991), which Michael Gifkins mold, omitted from the bigger Big Smoke mentioned in the New Zealand Listener. These names shall be in my heart collection. John O’Connor’s name (like He next became an editor of Spin and an enshrined – Stephen Oliver, Trevor Reeves, Michael occasional editor of Takahē and later Pretty and pert, and inclined to scold – Harlow, Alistair Paterson, etc.) was the New Zealand Poetry Society But it’s oh! for the girls we have left prominent amongst them. In fact anthology. He also helped co-organise a behind! O’Connor had been working away Canterbury Poets’ Collective (CPC) steadily throughout the 1970s, and his anthology: Voiceprints 2. Karen Placid Margot is in Doullens yet, initial starting point is around 1973. McNabb and Jeffrey Harpeng co- Happy and grave as of old, I know; Two collections held by the National founded CPC in 1990, and the first There in the cool of her kitchen set, and Turnbull Libraries in Wellington Voiceprints appeared that year. John And careless of how the world may go. are dated from the 1970s and are seen to helped co-organise the CPC and became Bath holds Reiby still in its fold be his earliest publications. Preludes a chair for five years, helping to bring (Visits and gossip and tea with her (1976) and Laying Autumn’s Dust outside poets to Christchurch for kind); (1978) are two chapbooks of his early readings as well as encouraging local Ethel’s in Bournemouth yet, I’m told – poetry 1973-1978 from ages 24-28. poets in regular open mics.

...... 7 Winter 2015 Of his time editing plainwraps, O’Connor’s poetry. More of O’Connor’s the haiku section of this competition and O’Connor was typically modest: “I did it light verse appears in the Bernard Gadd encouraged its growth in New Zealand. for a variety of reasons, mostly private, anthology of light verse, The He was regularly anthologised in their and feel that its impact outside of that (if Unbelievable Lightness of Eggs. competition anthologies, and included in it had any) was that it encouraged a few The Asian forms also took on more periodicals like the New Zealand poets in that their work was initially meaningful clarity, with Parts of the Listener, Takahē, plainwraps, Poetry solicited. I’m pleased I did that (personal Moon (haiku and renga imitations) Aotearoa, Poetry NZ, Frogpond (USA), letter, 31 January 2015).” Poets like John published by John Knight, of Post JAAM, New Zealand Books, Presto, CS Knight (Australia), Tony Beyer, John Pressed, Brisbane, and later the News, The Press (Christchurch), Valley Summers, David Howard, and David collection Bright the Harvest Moon, Micropress, Bravado, Catalyst, Southern Gregory, were some of the names he considered by O’Connor to be his Ocean Review, paper wasp (Australia), regularly published. Chris Moisa defining collection in this area. The book Social Alternatives (Australia), Printout, provided simple but effective artwork for includes a worthy appendix of Asian brief, broadsheet, Spin, Truck (USA) and the covers. poets, showing a close and scholarly others. Some of the anthologies that In the 1990s, O’Connor’s major study made by O’Connor of Asian include his work are: Big Sky: publication As It Is came from his newly forms. Earlier, in 1997, he had received Canterbury Poems; Land very fertile: founded Sudden Valley Press (after talks an honorary diploma from the Croatian Banks Peninsula poetry & prose; The with Hazard Press failed to eventuate in Haiku Association and in 2001 a Second Wellington International Poetry publication). O’Connor now sought to Museum of Haiku Literature Award Festival; The Poem & The World found a press, which benefited mostly (Tokyo) for “best of issue” in Frogpond (USA/Hungary/NZ); Wild Light (but not exclusively) local Canterbury International, a special issue of (NZ/Germany); Something Between poets and to publish his work (see JAAM Frogpond (USA) featuring haiku from Breaths (India); Painted Poems: One 7 for an interview on the press). As It Is 52 countries and language communities. Artist; 20 Poems: Eion Stevens; The eliminated his satire and nonsense verse He now held an international reputation Great New Zealand Pie Cart; Facing the and selected chiefly his imagist and in this area. Empty Page: 150 Essential New Zealand lyrical Modernist poems (owing a debt to Another quirky new development was Poems; and the New Zealand haiku Imagists, European Modernists and the more postmodern technology verse anthologies. Asian forms like haiku). It showed where he sought to use computer O’Connor’s record of always advancing greater thematic clarity. At the same graphics/symbols in place of words in his forward as a poet shows in the diverse time, the 1996 General Election poems. This was to be among his more list of international magazines and produced some telling satire from his pen inventive departures in his writing life anthologies mentioned above, and this in collaboration with the left of centre (an article on it appeared in a fine line, list is by no means exhaustive of his Bernard Gadd in Auckland. Too Right the New Zealand Poetry Society considerable publication record over Mate: The Well-Versed Voter’s Satirical newsletter in 2009). many years and in a number of countries Guide found O’Connor in well focused The final two collections published worldwide. satirical form attacking the New Right’s through HeadworX in 2013 and 2014 John was educated at the University of ideologies and social and health reforms. showed further satirical and poetic Canterbury. Throughout his working life, His last collection of the 1990s, A development. Aspects of Reality, his he held various jobs but worked chiefly Particular Context, was widely most postmodern treatment of language, as a schoolteacher and after as a taxi considered by many to be a turning point focused on social and political issues in driver. In his youth, he was in the in his poetry and the New Zealand Poetry contemporary society i.e. the general merchant navy, and held a lifelong Society members voted it as one of the widespread misinformation and admiration for the New Zealand poet five best books of the period. The chief dumbing-down of culture in the Denis Glover. A good friend of John’s change in this collection was the start of information super highway age – a topic was John Summers, to whom he a series of working class monologues also dealt with by Mark Young. dedicated Cornelius & Co. His wife ranging over his biographical story Whistling in the Dark culled most of his Sandra survives him. growing up in Christchurch. This more lyrical poems and prose poems, and At the time of his death, John was co- important development led to his work seemed to be his most purposeful work editor of the Canterbury Poets’ becoming widely anthologised for to date. Certainly, his work on the prose Combined Presses. instance in Essential New Zealand poem is another key concern in this It is expected O’Connor will have left Poems (2001). book, a type of poetry he had been behind several unpublished manuscripts O’Connor continued this development developing since A Particular Context in and folders of his poetry, which we may throughout the Noughties in Working 1999, but which seemed to be flowering. gain access to posthumously in the Voices, with Eric Mould, and in O’Connor was twice the winner of the future. Cornelius & Co.: Collected Working open section and once of the haiku Class Verse (on the suggestion of friend section of the New Zealand Poetry Mark Pirie and poet David Howard). Yet, this Society’s International Competition – remained only one of the chief strains in held annually. He also helped to judge

8 ...... Poetry Archive BIBLIOGRAPHY OF JOHN POSTSCRIPT by Michael O’Leary Starting with pragmatic: you can only O’CONNOR work with those who want to and can A postscript to Pirie’s obituary on John afford to. If poets have better options Poetry O’Connor has been supplied by Dr they’ll take them up. Michael O’Leary in the form of an Literary: only to some extent. I have Preludes, selections from poetry, 1973- interview that O’Leary published in his eclectic taste myself so I didn’t have a 1976 (John O’Connor, Christchurch, book Alternative Small Press problem with various styles / 1976). Publishing in New Zealand (Steele approaches to poetry. There had to be a Laying Autumn’s Dust, poems 1976- Roberts Ltd). literary standard, however, below which 1978 (John O’Connor, Christchurch, the books couldn’t go. 1978). AN INTERVIEW WITH JOHN Philosophical: not that it came up, but Laying Autumn’s Dust, poems and verse O’CONNOR the only things I would have said no to 1974-1983 (Line Print, Christchurch, would have been right-wing seeming 1983; new edition). 1 - What was your initial reason for texts. (i.e., anything that seemed to Citizen of No Mean City, poems and getting involved in publishing? Please favour elites / power / capital. I expect a verse 1983-1985 (Concept Publishing, try to think of this in the spirit of decent set of human values from S.V.P. Christchurch, 1985). what you were thinking and doing at authors.) Don’t Kick Me, I’ll Kick You the time. Overall, then, of all those mss available (broadsheet, John O’Connor, to S.V.P., rejections have been made on Christchurch, 1986). For me the decision to start Sudden the grounds of literary standard. (I’ve Too Right Mate: The Well-Versed Valley (with David Gregory as a mostly missed one or two, also, because the Voter’s Satirical Guide, with Bernard sleeping partner) came out of two author couldn’t afford to pay part of the Gadd (Hallard Press, Auckland, background factors. One was that I printing costs.) 1996). couldn’t get a press to publish my As It As It Is, poems 1981-1996 (Sudden Is, apart from Hazard who wanted too 4 - “...and if there is still a number of Valley Press, Christchurch, 1997). much to do so. The other was a commissioned works which seem to A Particular Context (Sudden Valley background in publishing. have been dreamed up by a Press, Christchurch, 1999). As you can see from my C.V. sabotaging office-boy on an LSD trip, Working Voices, with Eric Mould (enclosed) I put out a couple of there are now each year a growing (Hallard Press, Auckland, 2003). pamphlets in the ’70s and a couple of quantity of books which worthily add Parts of the Moon: Selected Haiku and books in the ’80s (the latter under the to our literature.” Professor J.C. Reid Senryu, 1988-2007 (Post Pressed, Concept imprint). Basically Concept from an article introducing New Brisbane, 2007). was a distributor - Ashley King - who Zealand Books in Print, written in Cornelius & Co.: Collected Working- made out he was a publisher. 1968. I interpret Reid’s assessment as Class Verse, 1996-2008 (Post Late ’80s early ’90s I also published 5 an indication of the rift between the Pressed, Brisbane, 2011). issues of a poetry journal titled acceptable ‘worthy’ literature as Bright the Harvest Moon, haiku & plainwraps Then, in the mid-’90s, the endorsed by academia, and the new renga imitations (Poets Group, Canterbury Poets Collective (of which I wave of sabotaging office boys and Christchurch, 2011). was a co-organizer) put out its second girls who at that time commissioned Aspects of Reality (HeadworX, local anthology Voiceprints 2, which I publishers to put out their works, or Wellington, 2013). was involved with too. simply published things themselves, Whistling in the Dark (HeadworX, Underlying this was a wish to start a and in many cases the work of their Wellington, 2014). small press, just for its own sake. friends. Comment on this quote in relation to the ‘Vanity Press’ vs ‘Real As editor 2 - Who or what was your main Publishing’ debate. influence behind your decision to plainwraps, Nos. 1-5 (1989-1991). publish? These may include literary There’s so much bullshit written about An Exchange of Gifts (Wellington, NZ or non-literary influences. lit., and in this context in particular. Poetry Society, 2001). Comments that might be appropriate. I don’t think there was anything apart 1) Academia was then in the more trad. NB: John O’Connor was also an from the answers to Q.1. mode of defending the old against the occasional editor of the small magazines new. Spin and Takahē. 3 - In your choice of authors was the 2) This no longer seems to be the case. main consideration for inclusion Good numbers of academics are on the philosophical, literary or pragmatic? lit-canon trip, e.g. Mark Williams (I think) in the intro to Opening the Book All 3. makes no secret of the sort of power he & his kind wield in his comments on

...... 9 Winter 2015 bringing through women writers in the author paid. (Almost all the books have illusions about the “greatness” of one’s ’70s & ’80s. (No reference to quality, or managed to cover their costs to date. work. (Even one S.V.P. poet thinks he’s audience and their response - just (as I Certainly S.V.P. got its $1,000 back - up there with Eliot & Rilke!). I try not recall) “we” decided this was going to the rest to the authors. We are non- to get on this track. Rather, I compare happen. Instant product.) profit.) my work with my earlier work and try Note: I’m not saying some of these to see if I’m changing, making progress, writers are unworthy of status - but I am 7 - How much of your publishing was etc. commenting on the power relationships commissioned and paid for (either I’d like to be more recognized of course that create that status. fully or partially) by the author? Was (only human). But so much of that is It seems to me that academia has your operation helped by the political. Writing grants (or another at dropped its trad. defence of the old voluntary work of friends and some point) would be very useful - even (against the new) for a quite different family? the small one I’ve had recently ($9,000) role: that of “cheer leaders” for a certain will help free up time. In fact it’s a big set of often new writers, mainly out of 1) See previous question. help in that respect. the university presses, and V.U.P. in 2) Only a little. S.V.P. is pretty much a particular. The counterpoint to this of one-man-band. (I do, usually, get the *See Ken Fea’s book On What is Not, course is that they try to marginalise authors to set out / lay out their work for instance. It’s not the standard poetry &/or denigrate writers who are not part though. Lots of hand holding needed.) volume at all. of that “establishment” - often the small press writer. 8 - What has been the cost to you J.O’C. Christchurch, 2000. personally in terms of time, money 5 - Initially, was your focus outwardly and resources, of being involved in cosmopolitan or inwardly New publishing in New Zealand? You may JOHN O’CONNOR Zealand looking, and how has this consider this in relation to more PUBLISHING BIBLIOGRAPHY emphasis changed over the years? difficult areas such as relationships with friends, family etc. also. Canterbury Poets’ Combined Presses Always been a bit of both - maybe as Publications the years have passed I’ve looked more Great cost in time. Money, not really - inward. But I still maintain a reasonably unless one counts what one could have 1 Canterbury Poets’ Collective (CPC) broad focus. earned by continuing in teaching. For anthologies However, that was a conscious decision 6 - What were your methods of about 10 years ago (to leave teaching Jeffrey Harpeng / David Howard (eds) printing and distribution as a and drive cabs over the weekend, thus Voiceprints (1990). publisher? Did you receive any freeing up time for writing, publishing Jonathan Fisher (ed) Voiceprints 2† financial or other assistance from etc.) I don’t regret that decision. (1995, 1996 new ed). either public organisations, or private Yes, it puts considerable strain on David Gregory / James Norcliffe (eds) sponsorship? family life and on my health. (25 to 30 Voiceprints 3 (2011). hours at night over the weekend, plus Printing - off-set or docutech. however many for poetry during the 2 Poets Group (PG)* Distribution - reciprocal arrangements week. The change of sleep pattern For chapbooks, experimental works, with friends: doesn’t help either). criticism, translations and imitations, collaborative works, light verse, etc. Auckland = Tony Beyer 9 - Where do you place yourself and your achievements as a publisher City Council display, Our Poets / Wellington/Dunedin = Mark Pirie (and as a writer if applicable) in the Christchurch Poetry Posters. history of the modern-day New Bernard Gadd, Prognostications of the Christchurch = me Zealand literary scene? Do you feel Apricot (2000). that your contribution has been Judith Haswell, Heavenly Blue (2002). (all S.O.R. to shops). adequately acknowledged. Jane Simpson, Candlewick Kelp (2002). Plus flyers to libraries and sales at our Barbara Strang, Duck Weather (2005). C.P.C. readings. S.V.P. is a small press - but it’s put out Mark Pirie, Tom: a novel in verse Only one of our 12 S.V.P. books (to some very good work*. It (& presses (2009). date) has gained a C.N.Z. publishing like it) add variety and I think some John O’Connor Bright the Harvest grant - $1,300 for The Usefulness of vitality to the scene. Moon (2011). Singing, which was done on off-set. As a writer: not really for me to judge. I Two of our books, On What is Not and think one of the big pit-falls for writers Shoot, got a $500 interest free loan from is comparing themselves with others. S.V.P. to help with printing. The rest is (Usually favourably.) It leads to

10 ...... Poetry Archive 3 Sudden Valley Press (SVP)* (Biography provided by Jean’s daughter For ‘standard’ books of poetry Classic New Zealand Denice Ronner (nee Lennox- poetry by Jean Hardcastle)) John Allison, Both Roads Taken (1997). Helen Jacobs, Pools Over Stone (1997). Hamilton Lennox Poems by Jean Hamilton Lennox David Gregory, Always Arriving (1997). John O’Connor, As It Is (1997). MY SONG Bernard Gadd, Stepping Off From This issue’s classic New Zealand poetry Northland (1997). is by Jean Hamilton Lennox (1909- I would sing of windy days, Graham Lindsay, Legend of the Cool 1979). Of autumn leaves that scatter, Secret (1999). Jean Hamilton Lennox was born in Tiny boats that dip and sway David Gregory, Frame of Mind (1999). Dunedin on 29 August 1909. The And little feet that patter; Kenneth Fea, On What Is Not (1999). Lennox family came from Carmunnock, I would sing of happy things, Mark Pirie, Shoot (1999). Scotland. No matter what the weather; Helen Jacobs, The Usefulness of Singing They arrived on the ship Ionic, which Life’s a lane of ups and downs (1999). had left Glasgow in 1908, and decided That roll along together. John Allison, Stone Moon Dark Water to settle in Dunedin. (1999). Jean learnt speech and drama from a (New Zealand Mercury, September John O’Connor, A Particular Context Miss Helen Gard’ner and decided to sit 1933) (1999). for her L.T.C. L. in speech through the Nick Williamson, The Whole Forest Trinity College in England. (2001). Jean set up her own studio in the High WILLOW-PATTERN Helen Bascand, Windows on the Street in Dunedin, where she taught Morning Side (2001). speech and drama. Remedial help was [For my father] Mark Pirie, No Joke (2001). also given to children who had Bernard Gadd, Debating Stones (2002). stuttering problems as, of course, there Time is a mighty healer I am told, Tony Beyer, Human Scale (2002). were few places to get help in those And pain of absence lessens with the Mark Pirie, Reading the Will (2002). days, and she taught them breathing years, James Norcliffe, Rat Tickling (2003). techniques. Until it dormant lies within the heart, Jeffrey Harpeng, Interruption of Writing poetry had always been A docile thing, Dreams (2003). something that she enjoyed doing from Without a sting; Bernard Gadd, End of the Snapshots a young age and she published poems in A memory—no more. (2007). the New Zealand Mercury, the New John Knight, Letters From the Asylum Zealand Herald and the New Zealand To-day, I held your willow-pattern cup (2009). Railways Magazine. Within my hands. (Dear God! ten weary Frankie McMillan, Dressing for the Jean was involved with the Dunedin years): Cannibals (2009). Repertory Society, and in 1935 she won Where is that mighty healer that can Helen Jacobs, Dried Figs (2012). the British Drama League Lady dim Alison Denham, Raspberry Money Ferguson Trophy [Otago Area] for This bitter pain, (2013). When Drums Have Ceased. It was That lives again, Andrew Strang, Things to Know (with produced and staged in the Dunedin And sears my heart afresh? an Introduction by John Dolan) Town Hall. (2014). After marriage, she moved to Napier Time is a mighty healer I am told, with her husband Dennis Hardcastle. And yet, your vision haunts me as of old. She continued to teach speech and †John is known to have co-organised drama privately and at Taradale Primary (New Zealand Mercury, February 1934) Voiceprints 2. It’s not known if he was School (part-time) with older students. directly involved with the other Jean Hamilton Hardcastle died in 1979 anthologies. aged 69 years. THE MIDNIGHT EXPRESS Besides her periodical publication, her *John worked on Poets Group and SVP poetry is anthologized in three Coupled with dreams is the ghostly cry titles, with fellow Canterbury poets anthologies: Here are Verses ed. Helen Of the flying night express, David Gregory and Barbara Strang. Longford (c1937), Of Trains and Things From a world of sleep to a stirring David Howard worked on a few of the compiled by Lynette Fowler morn, later titles. (Invercargill, 1986) and Rail Poems of From the shadowed hills to the plains of New Zealand Aotearoa: An Anthology corn, ed. Mark Pirie (PANZA/ESAW, 2010). Puffing and panting in dire distress— Goes the passenger night express.

...... 11 Winter 2015 And who can tell of its human freight, And here, so many children small It disappears mid’st clover sweet What issues there are at stake; Play quietly with modern toys, In haunts beyond the human beat: Of the trouble stored in a restless mind, And make so very little noise, While in my soul the sweetest song, Of the thrilled expectancy one would They scarcely seem to live at all. Born of a breeze in grasses long, find, What memories will childhood hold Of warbling thrush at break o’ day, Flying the dark to a world awake— As recompense, when they grow old? And fragrant scent of flow’ring May, On the passenger night express? Rises, and on the morning air, No rambling gardens tumblewise Transmuted, fades away in prayer. I only know when the iron horse Or barefoot holidays from school, Of humble mind, with trembling hand, Of the gleaming rails goes through, No running stream or silent pool Before my work again I stand, That my dreams are stirred with the Whose fairies dwelt in strange disguise, And marvel at my strange conceit vague unrest No golden gorse beside the door, Which thought to make His world more Of the wild romance of its eager quest, To haunt their dreams for evermore. sweet. Know that I long to be travelling too— With the passenger night express. Oh modern world, immaculate An artist might immortalize In ordered street and villa new, The glory of the dawning skies, (New Zealand Railways Magazine, I weary of your faultless view But only God can hold a thrush, Volume 8, Issue 3, 1 July 1933; With lawn and plot so accurate, And give it music with His brush. reprinted in Of Trains and Things And yearningly I raise my eyes (1986) and Rail Poems of New Zealand To glimpse the beauty of the skies. (New Zealand Mercury, April 1934) Aotearoa: An Anthology (2010)) (New Zealand Mercury, June 1933)

THE BLACKBIRD Comment on Edward WATERCOLOUR Skelton Garton I saw a blackbird in a tree With shining coat of ebony, An azure sky—a clump of trees, Rounded throat for a joy in throbbing. A hill or two—a fresh sea breeze: EDWARD SKELTON GARTON, Yellow bill for a joy in robbing, A tiny stream which marks its course 1864-1935 by Rowan Gibbs Roving eye for a garden’s treasure By yonder hedge of golden gorse, Of luscious fruits for his greedy Where honey bees in greedy haste, Edward Skelton Garton was born in pleasure. Ransack each flow’r to sip and taste Auckland in 1864, son of William I saw a blackbird in a tree, A nectar, sweet and rarer far Garton (1835-1920) and his wife It flew into the heart of me, Than mellowed wine in earthen jar: Emma, née Skelton (1834-1913), who And robber bold though it may be, And I, a fool, as God knows fools, had arrived in New Zealand from I only knew an ecstasy. Would reproduce with mortal tools. Yorkshire in 1859 on the Matoaka. (Oh, blind conceit of foolish man, The ship carried a party of religious (New Zealand Railways Magazine, To boast his will, to dream he can). dissenters headed by Thomas Ball who Volume 8, Issue 5, 1 September 1933) For God can mix a thousand shades, planned a self-sufficient community at In masterpiece that never fades: Oruati. William Garton travelled north Can shame with scent and shadow too, with them to Mangonui but purchased a MODERNITY The highest work that I might do; farm at Awanui, and later ran a store For, when at length I raise my brush, there. In 1865 he moved to a farm at So many houses, side by side, The ecstasy of yonder thrush Oruati and then to Hihi, all in the With fences low and gardens neat, Soars o’er my head and canvas cold Mangonui area. This is where Edward With paths of white for little feet, In vibrant notes of fluted gold: grew up and the poems in his book of But ne’er a nook in which to hide, How could I tell of hidden nest verse, Lays of Northern Zealandia Or spreading trees of any kind Where mottled eggs expectant rest? (Auckland, H. Brett, 1885), reflect his To harbour nests for boys to find. How could I lay her secret bare life there. A copy was presented to the When all her joy is buried there? visiting actor Dion Boucicault, with a So many houses, row on row, Upon the bank for all to see, note on the author: “a New Zealand Where flowers, grown to mortal rule, A burrow yawns enticingly, farmer’s son. This youth has just turned Are named and numbered as in a And in this hour when all is still his 20th year, and has spent his life in school, A rabbit small bobs down the hill: ‘following his father’s flock’.” And disciplined by rake and hoe; I follow it—straight to the hedge, (Auckland Star 7 December 1885, p.2). (In truth I wonder what the bees Away and over to the ledge, The book is digitized on archive.org: Must think of gardens such as these.) Where rugged cliffs drop to the sea: And there with look which pities me

12 ...... Poetry Archive https://archive.org/details/laysnorther Ravuvu in Rabaul (death notice in We’d sail and sail where argosy nzea00gartgoog Sydney Morning Herald, 25 July 1935). Have never sailed before, Reviews: After his death his wife opened a tea To isles where summer’s treasuries Observer, 24 January 1885, p.12; room in Ravavu, but this was destroyed Retain her golden store. Auckland Star, 31 January 1885, p.4. by a volcanic eruption in 1937: Beyond the siren’s pleasure halls To youth’s last land of dreams, At some date in the 1880s Edward …Before the eruptions she conducted Where speech is always harmony, moved to Sydney, and he married Helen a popular tearoom and a private A music of lost streams. Rebecca Buckman there in 1887. He swimming bath at Ravuvu, three Where voices from Lemuria, trained as an architect, probably under miles from Rabaul, on the edge of the Long past, are singing clear an Arthur Skelton who was practising as harbour. She returned yesterday to The old world’s deepest mysteries an architect there and was presumably a find her place a wreck. The place had That tremble on the ear. relative. Edward’s brother George also been systematically pillaged by All this, O sweetest treasure-maid, became an architect in Sydney. natives. Everything of any value was I’d gladly give to you, Edward was working as an architect by gone. Mrs. Garton’s husband died Had I the wealth of Pharaoh, 1901 and served on the Mosman two years ago, and she had been His power and glory too. Council 1904-7. In 1908 he was put into carrying on since then, principally bankruptcy by a slater and explained in catering for supper and week-end Down fern-fringed streams of February 1909 that he had over parties. The Vulcan Island eruption Maoriland, speculated in building houses; he was was only two miles away, and she And lakes of tropic fire, now working as a manager for his was compelled to flee, leaving By turquoise seas to wonder isles – brother George. By 1911 he was again everything she possessed in the The goal of heart’s desire – listed as an architect but the following house… Where rosy dawn comes blushingly year was charged with embezzling And even’s crimson glow money from a business partner. The jury Edward never published a second book Spreads all her fiery tapestries found him not guilty without even of poetry but he continued writing, as a O’er seas the sun-gods know. leaving the box but a further charge was poem by him, ‘Had I the Wealth of To palm-fringed isles that lazily brought. The result of that is uncertain Pharoah’, blending his New Zealand Bask in eternal light, but in 1914 and 1915 he is again and Pacific island experiences, was Where the moon brings her sorceries practising as an architect and calling for published in the Sydney Bulletin of 22 To charm the wonder night – tenders from builders. April 1932. Archives Australia has a To these fair climes, Carissima, In June 1917 he enlisted for World War literary work by him titled ‘The Carved I fain would sail with you, One. His military file has been Table’, registered for copyright 22 April Had I the wealth of Pharaoh, digitized, and interestingly he gave his 1932 while he was in Rabaul. His power and glory too. birth date as 1872, so he was accepted Here is the late poem which I have because he reduced his age, saying he transcribed from the Bulletin: RABAUL. was only 44 years, 9 months. He was rated fit for active service and assigned HAD I THE WEALTH OF E. SKELTON GARTON to “Engineer Reinforcements” as a PHARAOH “sapper”, but in October 1917 he was diagnosed with “senility” (in the sense Had I the wealth of Pharaoh, Comment on Geoffrey of the physical decline associated with His power and glory too, old age, with no suggestion of mental I’d build a golden galleon Pollett decline) and rated medically unfit. He With silken sails for you. was posted to Rabaul in New Guinea in With decks of polished amethyst October 1918 as a clerk and in 1921 And spars of silver bright, PANZA Archivist Dr Niel Wright was “transferred to civil administration And faëry lamps of crystolite received a recent research request from in Rabaul”. To charm the hours of night. Mark Valentine. In January 1922 he was a government With ropes and cords of gossamer Valentine, an overseas researcher, had official in New Guinea: interviewed in All tuned like viol strings been writing on the English writer, Sydney in 1924 he was “Mr. E. S. To woo the magic melodies Geoffrey Pollett (c1909-1937), who had Garton, chief technical instructor in The golden Orient sings. lived in New Zealand. He found an native education, in the territory of New All hung with crimson canopies essay by Dr Wright online. Guinea … in Sydney at present on And soft enchanting blue – In 2001, Wright published a booklet: a several months’ furlough”. Had I the wealth of Pharaoh, reading of Pollett’s Georgian poetry. He remained in Rabaul and died there His power and glory too! Valentine, an English biographer, is on July 18th 1935. He is buried in writing specifically about Pollett’s time in England selling poems door to door, ...... 13 Winter 2015 and hopes to republish Pollett’s memoir earlier work was often stilted and Song of Sixpence (1936) through an abounding in cliches. He ignores New publications by international publishing house, prosody and relies on ear; after all, PANZA Members: Valancourt (USA). Pollett’s memoir form-consciousness might choke draws some parallels with D’Arcy his “native woodnotes.” Of the Michael O’Leary and Cresswell’s more well known memoir, many poems, prose articles, A Poet’s Progress (1930). sketches, stories long and short, Hussein Jodu (Ali) Pollett took his own life in 1937. In some grim, more fantastically New Zealand, he was mainly associated humorous, which he has already as a poet with the journal New Zealand written, more may be heard anon, Title: Main Trunk Lines: Collected Mercury, but published poetry and though he does not think so; he Railway Poems fiction in newspapers in both Australia treats it all as preparatory. Author: Michael O’Leary and New Zealand. Here’s health to him and wealth Editor: Mark Pirie Valentine warmly appreciated Niel to him, and may he not be lost to ISBN 978-0-473-32917-4 Wright, Judith Wright and Rowan us. --G.L.L. Price: $25.00 Gibbs’s help with his introductory essay Extent: 80 pages on Pollett and tracing biographical Niel adds: “This is authoritative on Format: 148mmx210mm detail on Pollett’s life as well helping to Pollett. Bentley is a misprint. Wells is Publication: September 2015 assemble a chronology of Pollett’s HG, his essay is called The Scepticism Publisher: HeadworX Publishers published works. Of The Instrument.” Here is the New Zealand Mercury piece About the Book Niel Wright found: Michael O’Leary’s new book is the first VALE G.P Comments on Helen to collect his entire oeuvre of New G.P. is leaving us, to shake a Bascand and Paul Hill Zealand railway poems. lance and fly a plume in Grub Spanning over 30 years of his writing, it Street. Eight years ago, a dreamy runs the length of the railway in London boy, he became a cadet on PANZA notes with sadness the passing Aotearoa and depicts many of the one of our back-block farms: later, of two New Zealand poets: Helen country’s railway stations and towns. we find him a clerk in an Auckland Bascand, of Christchurch, and Paul Hill, The central poem of the book is counting-house. In those years he of Wellington. O’Leary’s sequence Station to Station, a has become a good New Zealander, Bascand, a book poet, had two cognac dedicated to the rock artist and in the interstices of their daily collections to her credit (published by David Bowie. grind he has crowded a vast amount Sudden Valley Press and Steele Roberts Mark Pirie writes in the foreword: of literary effort, including a Ltd respectively) and was a well known “Michael’s poems take the reader on correspondence course in and widely published poet in their own rail journey, stopping from journalism. Yet he has found time Canterbury and New Zealand poetry station to station and recording the life to make and weld many friendships circles. and times of the people and places and to rub shoulders with all and Hill, not a widely known poet in New around them. But the train can also be a sundry. He literally “reads as he Zealand, had contributed to the metaphor for life, the great journey we runs,” seizes every minute -- why, Wellington poetry journal broadsheet, are all part of which encompasses both for years he has worked all night No. 5, May 2010, an issue featuring the love and death. There’s no stopping for each Friday (folding newspapers, late Harvey McQueen. His broadsheet long with Michael, as the next train egad!) to add a few honest bob to poem about walking his dog Baxter on arrives and the next journey awaits.” his homeward hoard. Complex, Makara Hill was republished in The O’Leary’s well-known love of all things explosive, generous, disputatious, Dominion Post in 2010. rail led him to become a trustee for the he is the arch-enemy of Hill, a doctor, who had spent his Paekakariki Station Museum after he Absolutism, and doubts with childhood in India and Dublin, was a settled on the Kapiti Coast in the 1990s. Bentley the existence of matter and well known identity in Karori, He currently operates Kakariki with Wells is a sceptic of the Wellington, and his funeral was well Bookshop next to the Paekakariki Instrument of Thought. attended at Old St Paul’s in Wellington Station Museum. You perhaps know him only in May this year. from The Mercury: I have the ‘I don’t know of any living New privilege of knowing the man and Zealand writer who is a bigger railway most of his work. Of his writing I enthusiast.’ – Iain Sharp, Sunday Star- will say that its progressive Times improvement has been remarkable. It may sound incredible, but his

14 ...... Poetry Archive Michael O’Leary is a trustee for the * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Poetry Archive of New Zealand Aotearoa (PANZA), a charitable trust Title: Reality of the Imagination dedicated to archiving, collecting and Author: Hussein Jodu (Ali) promoting New Zealand poetry. ISBN 978-1-86942-165-6 He now lives in Paekakariki, north of Price: Not for sale Wellington. Website: Extent: 73 pages http://michaeloleary.wordpress.com Format: 148mmx210mm Publication: July 2015 Publisher: Earl of Seacliff Art About the Editor Workshop

Mark Pirie is a New Zealand poet, editor, and publisher. More About the Author information at his website: www.markpirie.com Hussein Laftah Jodu (Ali) “Ali” was born in the Marshlands of southern Iraq in a “sugar cane house”.

Sample poem According to his schoolteachers, Ali was a clever student who always had a About the Author THE RAILWAY LINE love of writing poetry in Arabic. On

leaving college at age 18 Ali was Michael O’Leary is a poet, novelist, Looking out the pastel painted required to enter Saddam Hussein’s publisher, performer and bookshop Colourless Cafeteria window army – compulsory in Iraq for three proprietor who has been a magnetic Through the long line of leaf-less years. Due to the Iran / Iraq war Ali was figure for many other contemporary Winter trees, whose branches not released from the army and was New Zealand writers. Stick out like ungainly stick-insects deployed to a specialised machine gun He writes in both English and Māori; The railway line – unit and sent to the southern Iraq border and his diverse and prolific work in Elevated almost sublime where they were ordered to invade poetry, fiction and non-fiction explores Symbol of our attempt to bring Kuwait. The ordinary soldier had his dual heritage: Māori (Te Arawa) on Structure and order, in the form of a nothing against the Kuwaiti people and his maternal side and Irish Catholic on straight line whilst they did cross over to Kuwaiti his father’s as well as his To a chaotic and natural world territory Ali’s unit did not fire their mother’s. Born in Auckland in the year – Looking out into that realm weapons. Ali spent a period of time in of the Tiger 1950, he was educated at Where the light changes and dances military prison but managed to escape the universities of Auckland, Ötago with delight to Baghdad where for 1000 dinar he was (Dunedin), and Victoria University On the leaves and other foliage able to obtain a false passport which (Wellington) where he completed his Which, although sparse is at places allowed him to escape to Jordan. He MA and PhD theses. Green and lush, and the grey-white travelled from Amman to Aqaba – His Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop clouds secretly boarded an Asian ship that had imprint (inspired by Andy Warhol’s When the wind blows, perform a delivered live sheep to Jordan, and ‘Factory’, the Beatles’ Apple label, and polonaise stowed away in the engine room. John and Yoko’s ‘Plastic Ono Band’), Beyond the landscape Ali has “no thought of where he was which he founded in 1984, has – Looking at the ordered straight rails going or where the ship was sailing to published some of his own prolific Slightly quake and shake and then move but was grateful to be in the hands of output, as well as many other New more Allah who he felt had led him to the Zealand writers. This press has also Violently as a thunderous goods train ship”. After two days of being in the featured books by writers from other approaches engine room, drinking water mixed with countries, including the first versions of Breaking the quiet bleakness with its oil he was noticed by one of the crew. Richard Berengarten’s series, Manual, Threat of danger Fortunately one of the crew spoke in four mini-books (2005-2009). The Arabic and after he had explained his 240-page A-Z compilation, 25 Years of Michael O’Leary circumstances they fed him chicken the Earl of Seacliff (ed. Mark Pirie, soup and cared for him. 36 days later he 2009), documents Michael O’Leary’s arrived in Auckland and was handed versatile and influential oeuvre. over to Immigration services who

placed him in a hostel first in Otahuhu

and then to Dominion Road, Mount Eden. He was accepted in to New Zealand ...... 15 Winter 2015 under the refugee scheme and became a poetry periodicals and broadsheets, self-employed painter travelling over Donate to PANZA poetry event programmes, posters and/or much of New Zealand – making through PayPal prints of NZ poets or their poetry books. particular connection with Māori on the DONT THROW OUT OLD NZ East Coast, and in Nelson, South Island. POETRY! SEND IT TO PANZA As a result of a car accident some years You can now become a friend of ago Ali became wheelchair dependent PANZA or donate cash to help us PANZA will offer: and has been able to pursue his passion continue our work by going to • Copies of NZ poetry books for private of writing poetry. http://pukapukabooks.blogspot.com and research and reading purposes. accessing the donate button – any • Historical information for poets, Sample poem donation will be acknowledged. writers, journalists, academics, researchers and independent scholars of Beautiful Angel NZ poetry. • Photocopying for private research i love you Recently received purposes. and you are my life star • Books on NZ poetry and literary and when i see you i love my existence donations history, and CD-ROMs of NZ poetry and yes you are my existence literature. and your love is the heaven Cliff Fell – The Good Husbandwoman’s • CDs of NZ poets reading their work. of life and not far Alphabet by Cliff Fell. You can assist the preservation of NZ to feel is the universe poetry by becoming one of the wanted me to be love poem to be Vaughan Rapatahana – Atonement by Friends of the Poetry Archive of New love song and sing i love your star Vaughan Rapatahana. Zealand Aotearoa (PANZA ). you are the moon If you’d like to become a friend or on the darkness of the earth Mark Pirie – 18 titles. business sponsor of PANZA, please on the earth i feel you are life contact us. for all the love Michael O’Leary – Reality of the for all the flowers Imagination by Hussein Jodu (Ali). Contact Details for all the doves Poetry Archive of NZ Aotearoa holy angel your existence means PANZA kindly thanks these donators to (PANZA) the universe without hunger the archive. 1 Woburn Road, Northland, Wellington just full of love Dr Niel Wright - Archivist you are wanted for the universe’s (04) 475 8042 beauty Dr Michael O’Leary - Archivist wanted for the universe’s move About the Poetry (04) 905 7978 there is no poem words for my love to email: [email protected] you Archive you are my life Visits welcome by appointment

Poetry Archive of New Zealand Hussein Jodu (Ali) Current PANZA Members: Aotearoa (PANZA) Mark Pirie (HeadworX), Roger Steele

(Steele Roberts Ltd), Michael O’Leary PANZA contains (Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop) and Niel

Wright (Original Books). A unique Archive of NZ published poetry, with around five thousand titles from the 19th century to the present day. Current Friends of PANZA: Paul Thompson, Gerrard O’Leary, The Archive also contains photos and Vaughan Rapatahana and the New paintings of NZ poets, publisher’s Zealand Poetry Society. catalogues, poetry ephemera, posters,

reproductions of book covers and other PANZA is a registered charitable trust memorabilia related to NZ poetry and poetry performance.

Wanted NZ poetry books (old & new) Other NZ poetry items i.e. critical books on NZ poetry, anthologies of NZ poetry,

16 ......