. . . Poetry Notes

Winter 2019 Volume 9, Issue 3

ISSN 1179-7681 Newsletter of PANZA

considered one of the red-hot talents of Inside this Issue Welcome my generation. Tandem Press had published Laura Solomon’s first novel, Hello and welcome to issue 35 Black Light, in 1995 when she was 21 Welcome (following issue 34, Summer 2019) of years old, and a second novel followed 1 Poetry Notes, the newsletter of PANZA, in 1996. Laura Solomon 1974-2019 the newly formed Poetry Archive of I anthologised Laura in 1998 as part of by Mark Pirie Aotearoa. an exciting new wave of young New Poetry Notes will be now be published Zealand writers at the time in New

from time to time and will include Zealand Writing: The NeXt Wave National Poetry Day poem 4 information about goings on at the (Otago University Press, 1998). The

Archive, articles on historical New New Zealand Listener review included Obituary: Michael Duffett Zealand poets of interest, occasional photos of us. Laura’s photo had a sign 5 (1943-2019) poems by invited poets and a record of held up saying “Graffiti writing will recently received donations to the lead to instant dismissal”. My own Poetry by Marion Rego Archive. photo showed me smiling in work 6 Articles and poems are copyright in the clothes, very conservative looking in

Report: Winter Readings names of the individual authors. comparison. 2019 The newsletter will be available for free I didn’t get to know Laura, however, 7 download from the Poetry Archive’s until she returned in 2007 from overseas New publications by website: where she had been working in IT and PANZA members had bought a house in Nelson. 8 http://poetryarchivenz.wordpress.com I visited Laura twice in Nelson (2011, 2015) and stayed at her house on one Letter to the Editor occasion. Our reason for being in 10 correspondence being that my company Laura Solomon: David Eggleton appointed 1974-2019 HeadworX had published Laura NZ Poet Laureate Solomon’s first poetry collection In Vitro in 2011, which was to be featured Donate to PANZA writer, editor and publisher at Nelson Live Poets in November that Mark Pirie remembers the late Nelson year. Due to illness, I read Laura’s writer and poet Laura Solomon, who Recently received poems on her behalf at the Yurt, a venue passed away this year after a long battle for concerts and performances, outside donations 11 with illness. the Free House pub.

We stayed in touch after, and I About the Poetry Archive My friend and fellow writer Laura continued to be impressed by her Solomon passed away on 18 February dedication to writing and her prolific this year. output despite a serious illness. I again I had known of Laura’s work since my visited her after an operation, while I PANZA time as a student at University was in Nelson for the ICC Cricket 1 Woburn Road of Wellington in the mid-late ’90s. World Cup at the Saxton Oval in March Northland Laura had already a reputation as a 2015. Laura was not a cricket follower Wellington 6012 novelist at a very young age, and was

...... Winter 2019 but was pleased to see me take time out Imitation of Life and Alternative Laura Solomon continued to reside in to visit her. Medicine, both eventually published in Nelson until her untimely death in 2019 Besides literary influences (Angela the UK. Solomon completed an MSc in at the age of 44. Carter and others), we shared similar Computer Science at Birkbeck College Gillian and Verner Bickley, Laura’s tastes in music. Bob Dylan and Nirvana at the University of in 2003. publishers [Proverse Publishing], have were among our favourite She then travelled internationally for her described Laura as “a bright, perceptive, musicians/bands. Nirvana features in work in IT, including working in witty writer, with a keen ear for Solomon’s final poetry collection, Norway for FAST Search and Transfer, dialogue and a wry and objective vision Awakening, published before her death now owned by Microsoft. Her play of modern life. Comedy and tragedy in late 2018. Sprout was produced at the Edinburgh both flowed to her pen from the I was always an admirer of Laura Fringe Festival in 2005. She returned to abundance of her imagination.” Solomon’s writing in prose and poetry. New Zealand to live in Nelson in 2007. She was always very active sending her Her recent fiction continued to find Bibliography work out internationally and met with publication overseas and her poetry her fair share of success in a fickle started to be widely published in New Laura Solomon published extensively in publishing world. Having lived in the Zealand and internationally in prose and poetry. A number of her UK, Laura recognised my own poetry magazines and online sites. Laura books were republished in various being published by Salt Publishing at Solomon won prizes in Bridport, Edwin formats before her death, i.e. eBook and Cambridge as significant. Morgan, Ware Poets, Willesden Herald, print adding to the impression of a What follows is a record of Laura Mere Literary Festival, and Essex prolific output since 2007 when she was Solomon’s publications and some of her Poetry Festival competitions. writing full-time in New Zealand. A poems from the book, In Vitro, that I In 2009, her novella, Instant Messages, check of Amazon will find most of her published in 2011. She was also a jointly won the inaugural Proverse Prize titles available online through several regular contributor to my journal for Fiction in Hong Kong and was international publishers in India, broadsheet: new new zealand poetry. short-listed for the Virginia Prize in the Finland and Hong Kong. A record of Laura was clearly an accomplished, UK. the publication of Solomon’s work can irreverent, energetic and robust writer In 2011, her debut collection of poetry be viewed at: https://www.laurasolomon with a growing corpus of work who was In Vitro appeared from HeadworX in .co.nz/bibliography/ taken from us far too soon. Wellington, New Zealand, and her short Laura Solomon actively supported The story “Sprout” was translated into Fiction End of Life Choice bill, with some of Czech by Olga Walló and appeared in her writing. krásná in the Czech Republic. She was Black Light (Auckland, N.Z.: Tandem also short-listed for the 2014 Press, 1996; Amazon Kindle edition Biography International Rubery Award. 2016). She has since published further fiction Nothing Lasting (Auckland, N.Z.: Laura Solomon was born in Auckland with Proverse Publishing, Hong Kong Tandem Press, 1997; India: Woven on 28 June 1974. Her parents are Lew (Hilary and David and University Days) Words Publishers, 2018). and Kaye Solomon, and she has a sister. and was said to have more fiction works Alternative Medicine [short stories] She grew up in various parts of New accepted for publication by Proverse, (UK: Flame Books, 2008; India: Woven Zealand and , including namely the two sequels to Instant Words Publishers, 2017). Raetihi, Nelson and Tasmania. Messages: The Theory of Networks and An Imitation of Life (UK: Solidus, 2010; Solomon wrote poetry and fiction from Operating Systems. Proverse also Hong Kong: Proverse Publishing, her teens. She graduated from Nayland published the second edition of In Vitro 2013). College, Nelson, in 1991 and later and a second collection of Solomon’s Instant Messages (Hong Kong: Proverse attended the in poetry, Freda Kahlo’s Cry, along with a Publishing, 2011). where she graduated with a short story collection The Shingle Bar Hilary and David (Hong Kong: Bachelor of Arts degree and wrote her Sea Monster and Other Stories. She has Proverse Publishing, 2011). first novel Black Light. also judged the Sentinel Quarterly Short The Shingle Bar Sea Monster and Other She moved to Wellington in 1996 to do Story Competition in the UK. Stories (Hong Kong: Proverse her Honours (2: 1) in English at Victoria More fiction: Taking Wainui, Hell’s Publishing, 2012). University of Wellington and to write Unveiling and Tales of Love and University Days (Hong Kong: Proverse her second novel Nothing Lasting, and Disability also appeared in India. Publishing, 2014). her play The Dummy Bride, which was Marsha’s Deal was published in Vera Magpie (CreateSpace Independent produced at the Wellington Fringe Finland in 2017. Publishing Platform, 2015). Festival in 1996. In 2018, her final poetry collection, Taking Wainui [short stories] (India: After graduating from Victoria, Awakening, was published in New York Woven Words Publishers, 2017). Solomon left New Zealand and lived by Adelaide Books. Marsha’s Deal (Finland: Creativia, abroad in London, where she wrote An 2017).

2 ...... Poetry Archive Tales of Love and Disability [short TECTONIC But my, O my, with what fortitude, stories] (India: Woven Words what resilience, Publishers, 2018). This country rests on two great plates. what purpose of mind, they rebuilt the Hell’s Unveiling (India: Woven Words It’s they that produce the instability place. Publishers, 2018). and also the fun stuff – geysers, hot All that glorious Art Deco. Decorated pools, volcanoes. The land never stucco. Poetry sleeps. Street by street, wall by wall, up it went; My grandfather looks out the window the best architects were shipped down In Vitro (Wellington, N.Z.: HeadworX and says, from the big smoke, Publishers, 2011; Hong Kong: Proverse Let’s never forget that terrible to plot and plan and design. Publishing, 2014, 2nd edition). earthquake that devastated Napier There was a carnival of sorts – the city Freda Kahlo’s Cry (Hong Kong: back in ‘31. was declared ‘reborn’. Proverse Publishing, 2015). Everything gone. The insurance blokes Citizens threw their hands in the air and Awakening: Poems (Lisbon/New York: called it an ‘act of God’, rejoiced. They had been given new Adelaide Books, 2018). which failed to wash with the non- land. believers, who blamed it on the world. The sea had retreated for good. After Drama Were there warnings, were there signs – all, no great disaster. a stillness in the air? Like all endings, it was also a Brain Graft (Hong Kong: Proverse Did the birds freeze in mid-song? Did beginning. Publishing, 2017). the animals act strangely? The city that had been faded in their minds. Crisis after crisis – a litany of tragedies. (The art of forgetting isn’t hard to Poems by Laura Solomon Or else, improvisation. master.) Lampposts invented new angles. On the BEHIND THE SCENES IN THE band rotunda, the clock hands stuck, The plates continue their treacherous LOST AND FOUND forever 10.47am – the time the work – no, they are not to be trusted. AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM earthquake struck. Everything did They shift beneath like restless children something; that refuse to go to bed – Why can’t these people be more gas pipes broke, power lines snapped, There’s fun stuff on TV – let’s stay up, careful? harbour walls buckled, wreak havoc, spread dread. How tricky can it be to keep track of roads split open wide, railway lines your possessions? twisted. My grandfather looks out the window, If I didn’t know better, I’d think they Nothing so out of the ordinary – takes in the wisp of smoke, says – bought just to lose. just the earth running through its They say Rangitoto’s going to blow. I never misplaced a thing. I am the checklist, ticking boxes. And though nobody can predict the perfect warden. A keeper, of sorts. The dust rose, and then settled. Just in exact hour when the thing will go, time for the fire. they say, any day now, any day now – To the left of that stack over there to the It swept through, a wave of flame. when it happens you will know. right – Unfortunates were trapped beneath somebody’s red mittens, somebody beams. else’s red shoes. Doctors rushed forward, morphine in THE FIX-IT MAN Rarely do I give them what they ask for, hand – even if what they think is lost has been soon the captured felt no pain. Cliffs I am the fix-it man. found. fell. I am your remedy – I will bring you I rummage in piles. I take my time. Some spent the night in the open air. back from the dead. I return to the counter empty-handed. Kind people in nearby towns opened up I will ease your pain, set you on your “Sorry,” I say. “Don’t have nothing for their homes. feet again. you.” Most hotels were destroyed – I hold out my hands, palms upwards. A the Masonic collapsed completely, a I speak in clichés, it’s true. I could be universe of vacancy. wall at the Empire crumbled, the death or the birth of you. leaving the rooms on one side exposed. I can get you in the door, pick you up Their faces hold worlds of Guests awoke – looked out into empty off the floor – disappointment. I pretend that I care. space, O there’s nothing I couldn’t do for you. I never let on that something isn’t right. fresh vacancy in their eyes. They’d lost their city, a lovely one. I could put you in jail or grant you The beehive glass of the Great Court release – is your jigsaw missing sky? lets in far too much light. I shall find the absent piece.

...... 3 Winter 2019 All the king’s horses and all the king’s Best to pay nothing, say nothing at all. men – Keep your face blank while the stuff National Poetry Day I succeeded where they failed, which is they said wasn’t flame gets just a little poem: Farewell to a Poet to say, too warm, I’m the guy who put what’s-his-face it’ll all be over soon enough – by Michael Duffett back together again. in no time at all you’ll be gone. (USA) I have quite a reputation. YOU WILL KNOW WHEN Unformed universes revolve in the palm YOU LEAVE

of my hand. It is a place of choice. The deep black fissure in the rock glistens like an open wound. Or some THE ETERNAL STUPIDITY OF fanged mouth of hell. THE WICKER MAN You can’t even remember what you Everybody else knew. How could he came here for; have been such an idiot? there is no turning back. Dead track.

So naive – follow us, yoo-hoo, over Down you go, alone, so late, here, this way, this way, this way to kelp grasping at your legs like the fun. grubby fingers of ghostly girls. That’s it, that’s it, climb those stairs, The bitter salty air stings pores, the one foot after the other, there’s quite seagulls chirp – angelic lunatics. a view from the top. The keening wind moans its chorus, your hands cling like spiders’ legs to Throw away that copy of Jackson’s ‘The the walls. Lottery’ you won’t be needing that – don’t worry about the orange stuff, sure You have no idea where on earth in the it looks a bit like flame but it’s world you are. something else entirely, You are clueless. There are no more orange-coloured air, it won’t hurt a bit. planks to break. Portrait of Denis Glover, 1973. Evening post Your mind is nothing more nor less than (Newspaper. 1865-2002) :Photographic Others have been here before you, negatives and prints of the Evening Post simple blank space. you’re not the only one. They all newspaper. Ref: 1/4-021052-F. Alexander climbed down unharmed. The ancient songs of extinct birds are Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. Those charred remnants that look a bit /records/22828773 like bones blowing in the breeze. are papier mâché and wire painted up Is there something in or under a rock pitch black. Don’t be fooled by those. pool that you think you might need? This year’s National Poetry Day was There is no thought here that hasn’t held on Friday, 23 August 2019. That’s it, that’s it, step by step, don’t been thought before. PANZA chose a rare poem in memory look down at the crowd, There are vampires in the trees. of the New Zealand poet, typographer, publisher and wit Denis Glover (1912- ignore that voice that yells, “Your You won’t know when you get there. suffering is our spectator sport!” 1980). You will know when you leave. The poem, ‘Farewell to a Poet’ was by It’s only envy. How they’d love to switch places with you. the UK-born American poet Michael Duffett, who himself passed away on 9 One is all it takes. There’s just no point July this year. Two months prior to in asking what you did to deserve it. Duffett’s death, his book The Presence You did not choose; you were chosen. of Love: Poems Selected and New had All your horses that you declared been released in New Zealand by my were Trojan publishing company HeadworX. It’s turned out to be blind and lame. nice to remember both of these poets on Existence is only a game. National Poetry Day in New Zealand, This world is just an illusion, they say – and recall their friendship. nobody cares what price you pay. Duffett once wrote: “[New Zealand] remains unique in my memory as the Laura Solomon one land in my travels about which I

4 ...... Poetry Archive have exclusively positive memories.” which led to his eventual death (four New Zealand turns up in Michael days later), with his wife Lyn by his Duffett’s most well-known book of hospital bedside on Saturday, 9 August poetry, Forever Avenue, published in 1980. Yet Michael Duffett presents the California in 1987. further view of a Glover in decline, Duffett visited New Zealand in 1979 slipping in his bath. Duffett too and spent some time with Denis Glover acknowledges closely the coroner’s in the final year of his life. Duffett official view that Glover’s death was visited him again a few weeks before ‘bronchopneumonia’ from the effects of his death in 1980. liver disease brought on by his drinking. Duffett appears to be a person or friend On my return from the , I in the know. spent time in Wellington with Denis The image of Glover being “innocent Glover, to whom I instantly warmed. and free” in his death sums up perfectly He was a force of nature, a booming the complexity of Glover’s persona and laugh, a great bright alcoholically- life, and is a profound image of Denis reddened nose like Mr. Punch and an Glover, the man and myth. irresistible cheerful manner. I recall a It’s remarkable that an outside voice visit to the bank with him and, on from overseas could come away with being asked by a timid young lady such an apt description of Glover, after bank clerk how he would like his only knowing him a short while. Michael Duffett cash, he boomed in reply, “Any way Michael Duffett shows the value of at all, my dear. It all goes down the overseas commentators on New Zealand drain.” I have come to see that as an literature. absolutely accurate assessment of the Michael Duffett meaning of money. FAREWELL TO A POET (1943-2019) On another occasion when Denis had cajoled my services to drive him to Once back in Wellington I rendezvous’d the Alexander Turnbull Library, I With Glover, took him snoring home As mentioned PANZA member Mark drove to his home. Denis lived in a one day Pirie recently published a book of curiously-designed house that had a Squeezed in the back. “Is that Denis poetry by Michael Duffett, a UK-born bathroom on one side of the living Glover Californian Professor and poet. room and a bedroom on the other. As You’ve got in there?” (as if I’d Duffett contributed two articles to our I arrived (early, or maybe Denis was kidnapped newsletter Poetry Notes and maintained late) his wife Lyn hurried into the A national figure) the petrol-pump affection for New Zealand after visiting garden to meet me. I later realised it Attendant asked, amazed. I took him in 1979 through his writings. was to forestall me from bumping into home, PANZA was saddened to hear of a semi-clad poet on the way from Arranged to take him into town next Michael’s death this year. Our deepest bathroom to bedroom. Denis, to day. sympathy is expressed to his family and whom embarrassment was unknown, I did and as we parted, fierce yet fond friends. knew what Lyn was up to and And fondling yellow eyes gleamed at The following biography appeared in bellowed from inside the house, “Let me, The Presence of Love (HeadworX, the bloody man come in if he’s here!” Knowing they were seeing me forever. 2019) released two months before Moments later, I sat with a cup of tea We never met again; he must have Michael’s death. in the living room, the bathroom door known it. opened and there was the great poet in Dear Denis, human man, fell in his bath ABOUT MICHAEL DUFFETT his skivvies, giving me the naval A few weeks later, and never rose again, salute to his Russian Commander’s Went back to his Maker at that moment Michael Duffett was born in wartime hat (a gift from the Soviets). I wish I As he came, as innocent and free London in 1943 when an incendiary had had a camera! As naked, striding, new-born babe. bomb fell through the roof of his parents’ home sending his mother into Michael Duffett’s poem is of interest Poem © Michael Duffett, 2019 labor. He was educated at Portsmouth because it explores (with empathy) Northern Grammar School where he Glover’s decline. His official biographer Article © Mark Pirie studied Classical Greek from the age of Gordon Ogilvie, in Denis Glover: His 11 and Cambridge University from Life (1999), recounts that Glover had which he holds the BA and MA fallen down steps during his shift to degrees. At Cambridge, he met the poet Breaker Bay Road from Strathmore,

...... 5 Winter 2019 Richard Berengarten, and they German auto mechanic. He directed a Poems by Marion Rego edited/founded Carcanet magazine. theatre group for a number of years at a He was a teacher of English for four playhouse in the California foothills, DRIVING TO KAIKOURA years in Saudi Arabia, spent a year and he was represented as the giant by living on the Aegean island of Paros the voice of Don Deluise in an animated There they were, by the Stop and Go where he improved his knowledge of movie of Tom Thumb by the eminent signs, in the cold drizzle Greek, went to Tokyo for 10 years book-illustrator Richard Jesse Watson. Middle-aged men, arms folded, dark where he taught English Literature and He is a member of the Screen Actors glasses, protective headgear earned a Litt. D. degree for his book Guild and Equity. and grim faces to match the grim The Variety of English Expression. landscape He moved to the United States at the But the young women, in their twenties, invitation of the Culture Learning Poetry by Marion doing the same job in the same cold Institute of the East-West Center, a drizzle federally-funded think tank in Honolulu, Rego would catch the eye of this lone woman Hawaii. In Hawaii, he met the New driver Zealand poet K.O. Arvidson. They give a smile collaborated and produced the PANZA member Mark Pirie recently a cheerful wave of the hand anthology Poetry East and West, East- borrowed a book by Marion Rego, and a sense that this once beautiful, now West Center, Honolulu, 1981. Africa for One (2014). It is a bold and shattered coast Duffett was next Assistant Professor of truthful account of the author’s early might never be the same English at Chaminade University, came life spent in Southern Africa but it would be . . . alright to California in 1983 where he has been (Zimbabwe, Malawi) in the 1960s, in Minister of the Church of Christ in Rio various jobs, travelling and teaching in Vista, Editor of The River News-Herald, schools, during the Apartheid era in CHOICES Instructor of English and Humanities at South Africa. Columbia College and San Joaquin Marion Rego (née Quartermain) When we were children, most of us, I Delta College. He has been Assistant (b. 1934) made teaching her career but think, Professor of English and Humanities at has always loved writing and has been would have gone to Sunday school Humphreys College in Stockton, and is published in several genres – children’s From there we would troop into church currently Associate Professor of English stories and songs, travel writing, poetry and sit squashed together at San Joaquin Delta College in – and while working for the Well . . . boys on one side, girls on the California. Correspondence School was involved in other . . . He has published extensively in prose broadcasts and written resources for the in absolute stillness and verse, a play of his, Mountain, was school, as well as contributing to the We would try not to drop our pennies produced on National Public Radio in New Zealand School Journal. on the floor the United States in 1988 and his most Rego’s children’s stories/picture books We would try not to get the giggles well-known book is Forever Avenue include: At the Marae (1992), Fishing and cop glares from the adults which his publisher describes as “short (1994), Sandcastles (1995), My Secret Above all, we kept quiet stories in verse.” An earlier collection of Place (1995), The Birthday Present If you go into church today his poetry is Evolution, A Japanese (1995), Dolphins (1995), Polly’s you will have no trouble finding a Journal, 1974, from which a poem Problem (1995), Grandad’s Attic seat appeared in the New Zealand Listener, (2002), Know That Bird (2003), Driving You may have trouble saying a quiet under the books’ page editorship of the Car (2004), Crossing the Road prayer to yourself Vincent O’Sullivan, following his visit (2005), Fussy Cat (2006), More Birds because everyone else will be to New Zealand on the invitation of (2007), Small Garden Creatures (2008), chattering Frank McKay in 1979. and Animals on the Farm (2011). A or waving to someone on the other As an actor Michael Duffett first volume of her poetry, Written on the side appeared on the professional stage at the wind, was published in 2018. Children will be running up and down age of eleven in the boys’ chorus in Marion Rego performs her work the aisles “Carmen” with the Carl Rosa Light regularly at the Poets to the People and everyone will be relaxed and Opera Company in England. Since then, readings on the Kāpiti Coast. happy he has appeared on stage in diverse We feature some of her poetry in the What would you rather have? roles. His voice preceded him to the PANZA newsletter. A full church of quiet people United States as the fox in a production who may or may not have wanted to of the Japanese Theater for Children be there? playing in Los Angeles and Honolulu. Or a half-empty church of people He appeared in the final episodes of who are there because they want to Magnum, P.I. as Victor Goetz, the crazy be? 6 ...... Poetry Archive HOW ARE YOU? mixture of new and old work, including Report: Winter Readings poems from Flight Paths (HeadworX, At the supermarket, the checkout 2019 2019). One of her poems celebrated a operator invariably asks recent reading at Titirangi Poets in How are you? Auckland. If I don’t answer she raises her voice At this year’s Winter Readings in and asks again Poem by Jeremy Roberts Paekakariki, “The Black Album How are you? Readings”, Earl of Seacliff Art Does she really want to know? TRANSISTOR HEAVEN Workshop published an anthology of Alright, I’ll tell her the readers, and awarded its annual Music always came from a better place. Start with my head poetry prize to Jeremy Roberts It spoke to me like big soul-filling ka- I bet nobody my age has perfect (Hawke’s Bay), a surprise award. ching eyesight . . . perfect hearing . . . The Black Album Readings held at St within the stupefying vortex of the breathing . . . teeth . . . Peter’s Hall on 17 August 2019 was a material world. So that’ll take a while tribute to the heavy rock group My daughter is playing her recording of Move on down Metallica and an event continuing the a new song. By now a queue of customers has return of a popular poetry reading series I know this place well & sink formed, all forced to hear about the in the Wellington region presented by comfortably into the leather sofa – frustrations the Poetry Archive Trust, HeadworX gently biting the soft flesh inside my of hitting the wrong keys with my Publishers and ESAW 2003-2008, mouth, arthritic fingers 2016, 2017 and 2018. as a substitute for chewing gum. By the time I’ve moved on down to the This year’s attendance was small due to The waves soon call me back to a time really interesting problems bad weather but maintained its support waiting for Casey Kasem the other customers have found another from the previous years, and the to introduce Barry Manilow singing ‘I checkout participants were Rob Hack (MC), Tim Write the Songs.’ But my checkout operator is stuck Jones, Jeremy Roberts, Mary It was American, you see – She doesn’t want to hear about these Maringikura Campbell, HeadworX the musical infiltration of starving ears, problems, and neither do you editor Mark Pirie, Alex Jeune, Margaret a therapeutic displacement of social But she asked for it. Jeune, and ESAW publisher Michael failure, O’Leary. anxiety over career expectations. Alex Jeune was first up and read short, Oh, how drab the system was – almost MARIGOLDS sensitive and tightly polished, image- sending you off your rocker! based poems. Jeremy Roberts followed & then: From my kitchen window I see giving a sense of his billing as a Napier A clap of thunder underneath a marigolds in the garden Live Poets host. His livewire poetry was fingernail. Glowing in the sunshine, sparkling in well suited to performance. Mary Thin lips pressed against the throbbing the rain Maringikura Campbell read afterwards VU meter. Bending in the wind with powerful and colourful poetry. Tim An intense light of freedom fluttering – Brightness among dull green vegetable Jones ended the first part of the reading louder & louder in a dark corner of the leaves with a mixture of climate change poetry bedroom. He who does the garden says “They’ll and music poetry, including several have to go. which featured Metallica and gave a (Winner of the Earl of Seacliff Poetry I need that patch for carrots, or profound insight into the rock business. Prize, 2019) tomatoes, silver beet, Rob Hack restarted the session after a Or something. short coffee/tea break with a poem on I’ll go and dig them out.” his experiences, going to the mines to I bar the way “make it big” in Western Australia. You shall not take my marigolds Michael O’Leary read from his I need them Collected Poems (HeadworX, 2017) and They brighten up my day The Black Album Readings anthology. And my life Mark Pirie’s poems were mainly a mixture of music-centred poems (noting Poems © Marion Rego the influence of Metallica on his early book Ride the Tempest) and sports poetry. He ended with a tribute to the great All Black Jonah Lomu. Margaret Jeune was the final reader and read a Jeremy Roberts

...... 7 Winter 2019 Title: Upbeat: Selected Early Poems Title: My Sketchbook New publications by 1969-1987 Author: Margaret Webb (aka PANZA members Author: Margaret Webb (aka Margaret Jeune) Margaret Jeune) ISBN 978-0-473-48232-9 ISBN 978-0-473-46917-7 Extent: 20 pages Title: Flight Paths Extent: 80 pages Format: A5 Author: Margaret Jeune Format: 108x174mm Publication: July 2019 ISBN 978-0-473-46914-6 Publication: May 2019 Publisher: The Night Press (a division Extent: 75 pages Publisher: HeadworX of HeadworX) Format: 140mmx211mm Publication: March 2019 About the Book Publisher: HeadworX Upbeat, a selection from the early poetry of Margaret Webb, is a period gem. The title conjures literary and music associations i.e. the howl of the Beat Generation and the jazz, folk and rock music of the 1960s/1970s. Margaret dedicates this volume to her generation, and it is a record of her youth and beginnings as a poet: self- taught and free-wheeling. It covers her life from age 13 (1969) to age 31 (1987). Her authentic experience in these years included coffee bars, a variety of work experience, study, cafes, hitchhiking, communes, protests, a yoga ashram, love relationships, and the music scene. This is the second book of Margaret’s poetry. The first, Flight Paths by About the Book About the Book Margaret Jeune (her later name), contains much of her poetry written My Sketchbook is a collection of poems Flight Paths is a first collection of after Upbeat. for children drawn from the author poems by an Auckland-born poet, who Margaret Webb’s first publication of has been writing since childhood. The poetry in the Children’s Page of The poems are drawn from published Evening Post, 1968-1970 (aged 12 to 14 material from the past 30 years in years). periodicals and anthologies and from unpublished works. The book offers a choice of Margaret ******************************** Jeune’s distinctive poetry. These are philosophical and questioning poems, Title: broadsheet 23 focusing on contemporary, political, Editor: Mark Pirie social and environmental issues. There ISSN:1178-7808 are also personal and domestic poems. Price: $10.00 Jeune’s poetry shows a commitment to Extent: 40 pages people and a caring society. Format: 149x210mm Publication: May 2019 Publisher: The Night Press (a division ******************************** of HeadworX)

About the Book

******************************** broadsheet 23 features the Wellington

poet Margaret Jeune, and includes a

number of her friends and her son as

8 ...... Poetry Archive well as a couple of poets outside the been published in the Poetry Page of the lecturing tour and the publication main feature. Kāpiti Observer, Valley Micropress continues Duffett’s long-term Poets included are: Margaret Jeune, (1997-2018) and Elderberries association with the country. Also Alex Jeune, Anita Arlov, Siobhan (Horowhenua District Council). She has included is a Foreword by Duffett and Harvey, Alistair Paterson, Annie also had her poetry published in an Appendix detailing his 1979 visit Newcomer (USA), Karen Peterson anthologies, including under the name along with a number of poems relating Butterworth, Tony Chad, Bill Dacker, of “M.A. June”. to the New Zealand poets Allen Michael Duffett (USA), Mark Raffills, Curnow, C.K. Stead, Denis Glover and P V Reeves (1927-2019), Brentley K.O. Arvidson. Frazer (Australia), Bill Sutton and Gill ******************************** Ward. About the Author Cover photo of Margaret Jeune by Title: The Presence of Love: Poems Marie Fallen. Selected and New Michael Duffett was born in wartime Author: Michael Duffett London in 1943. He was educated at ISBN 978-0-473-46915-3 Cambridge University from which he Extent: 80 pages holds the BA and MA degrees. He has Format: 140mmx211mm been a poet and Professor all over the Publication: May 2019 world and is currently Associate Publisher: HeadworX Professor of English at San Joaquin Delta College in California. He has published extensively in prose and verse, a play of his, Mountain, was produced on National Public Radio in the United States in 1988 and his most well-known book is Forever Avenue which his publisher describes as “short stories in verse.”

********************************

Title: The Black Album Readings Editor: Mark Pirie ISBN: 978-1-86942-184-7

About the Author Price: $15.00 About the Book Extent: 24 pages Margaret Jeune (also known as Format: 149x210mm Margaret June and Margaret Webb) was The Presence of Love is a collection of Publication: August 2018 born in Auckland in 1956 and grew up poems by a UK-born Californian Publisher: Earl of Seacliff Art in Wainuiomata in the Hutt Valley. She Professor and poet, who has been Workshop lived in Wellington from the late 1970s writing since the 1960s. The poems are and moved up to Ōtaki on the Kāpiti drawn from published material from the About the Book Coast in 1990 and from there to Levin past 40 years in periodicals, anthologies in the Horowhenua in 1999. She and from unpublished works. Written in The Black Album Readings (a tribute to returned to Wellington in 2017. She has a mixture of verse styles, Duffett’s Metallica) celebrates the Winter a BA in Education and a Post Graduate mode shows a tendency for the sonnet Readings held at St Peter’s Hall, Diploma in Teaching (Early and the shorter lyric, with philosophical, Paekakariki, on 17 August 2019. Childhood). She works as an Early scholarly, spiritual and metaphysical Contributors include: Tim Jones, Mary Childhood Teacher. Currently she concerns for the natural world and the Maringikura Campbell, Mark Pirie, works as a relief teacher for Whānau human condition. Michael O’Leary, Margaret Jeune, Manaaki Kindergartens. The book is edited by Wellington writer Alex Jeune, Jeremy Roberts and Rob Margaret has three adult children and and literary scholar Mark Pirie and Hack. four grandchildren. follows on from the feature of Michael Winter Readings, an annual event in the She has written poetry from an early Duffett’s work in broadsheet: new Wellington region, is presented by the age. Margaret initially had her poetry zealand poetry in 2016. The author once Poetry Archive Trust, HeadworX published in the Children’s Page of The visited New Zealand in 1979 on a Publishers and ESAW 2003-2008, Evening Post. Since then her poetry has 2016-2019.

...... 9 Winter 2019 About the Editor Cerebral Palsy Unit in Australia. He As part of our efforts to build a more holds a Mus. B. degree from VUW inclusive society in the wake of this sad Mark Pirie is an internationally (1965) and was 1st horn in The event, we should now adopt the practice published New Zealand poet, editor, Wellington Youth Orchestra, and the of singing the first verse of the anthem writer and publisher National Youth Orchestra (1969). He in te reo Māori, followed by the second, has had many poems published in but rarely heard, verse “Men of every recognized magazines. He won first creed and race gathered here ...etc.” in prize in the Waipa Districts Libraries English. Bracken’s words, though from poetry competition, 2015, against 119 an earlier century, have a compellingly other competitors. Other interests relevant message for today. include Cosmology, Ecology and Yours etc composing music. Graeme Pirie, Raumati Beach

The author comments in postscript to PANZA:

The only additional comment I have contemplated since, is whether the second verse should be alternated with the third “Peace, not war, shall be our boast ...”. Apart from the imperial skirmishes and land wars in the early 1800s, this

remains true.

********************************

David Eggleton Title: Ear to the Ground: A Novel Author: Gary Mutton appointed NZ Poet ISBN: 978-1-86942-186-1 Laureate Format: 149x210mm Extent: 96 pages Publication: August 2018 PANZA would like to congratulate Publisher: Earl of Seacliff Art David Eggleton on his recent Workshop appointment as New Zealand’s Poet Laureate. About the Book Letter to the Editor

Ear to the Ground is Gary Mutton’s Donate to PANZA first novel. Set in Wellington among the The following letter in support of New migrant citizenry, a street hireling of an Zealand poet Thomas Bracken’s through PayPal intelligence organization creates serious inclusive poetic prayer and the young trouble for a woman University people of Otautahi appeared in The Lecturer. Cursory observation, jealousy, Dominion Post, 1 April 2019. It was You can now become a friend of and presumption causes outrage. abridged from the full version printed PANZA or donate cash to help us here. continue our work by going to About the Author http://pukapukabooks.blogspot.com and Dear Editor, I was greatly impressed by accessing the donate button – any Gary Mutton has led a strangely varied the way in which the young people of donation will be acknowledged. existence. Holder of three Wellington Otautahi expressed their grief and gave Athletic Centre titles, he has also seen practical support to the victims of the naval service, worked in a furnishing recent terror attacks in their city. They company, then as a psychiatric nurse, gave real expression to the New subeditor for an agricultural periodical, Zealand values so eloquently expressed public relations officer in a Consular in Thomas Bracken’s 1876 poetic Office, free-lance journalist for a prayer for our country, which has since sectarian newspaper, and aide in a become our National Anthem.

10 ...... Poetry Archive • Books on NZ poetry and literary Recently received history, and CD-ROMs of NZ poetry and donations literature. • CDs of NZ poets reading their work. You can assist the preservation of NZ PANZA kindly thanks these donators to poetry by becoming one of the the archive. Friends of the Poetry Archive of New Zealand Aotearoa (PANZA ). Tim Jones – 24 titles. If you’d like to become a friend or business sponsor of PANZA, please Robert McLean – 4 titles. contact us.

Margaret Jeune – 22 titles. Contact Details Poetry Archive of NZ Aotearoa Mark Pirie – 14 titles. (PANZA) 1 Woburn Road, Northland, Wellington Dr - Archivist (04) 475 8042 About the Poetry Dr Michael O’Leary - Archivist (04) 905 7978 Archive Email: [email protected]

Poetry Archive of New Zealand Visits welcome by appointment Aotearoa (PANZA) PANZA contains Current PANZA Members: Mark Pirie (HeadworX), Roger Steele A unique Archive of NZ published (Steele Roberts Ltd), Michael O’Leary poetry, with around five thousand titles (Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop) and Niel from the 19th century to the present day. Wright (Original Books). The Archive also contains photos and paintings of NZ poets, publisher’s Current Friends of PANZA: catalogues, poetry ephemera, posters, Paul Thompson, Gerrard O’Leary, reproductions of book covers and other Vaughan Rapatahana, Cameron La memorabilia related to NZ poetry and Follette (USA), Riemke Ensing and the poetry performance. New Zealand Poetry Society.

Wanted PANZA is a registered charitable trust NZ poetry books (old & new) Other NZ poetry items i.e. critical books on NZ poetry, anthologies of NZ poetry, poetry periodicals and broadsheets, poetry event programmes, posters and/or prints of NZ poets or their poetry books. DONT THROW OUT OLD NZ POETRY! SEND IT TO PANZA

PANZA will offer: • Copies of NZ poetry books for private research and reading purposes. • Historical information for poets, writers, journalists, academics, researchers and independent scholars of NZ poetry. • Photocopying for private research purposes.

...... 11