Autumn 2016, Volume 7, Issue 1
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. Poetry Notes Autumn 2016 Volume 7, Issue 1 ISSN 1179-7681 Quarterly Newsletter of PANZA research journal and I was paid a 6- Inside this Issue Welcome month bonus in cash every summer. So, 18 months salary for half a year’s work. Hello and welcome to issue 25 of The idea is not to make you a lazy, Welcome Poetry Notes, the newsletter of PANZA, privileged academic but a hard-working 1 the newly formed Poetry Archive of responsible one. It worked that latter Michael Duffett on New Zealand Aotearoa. way with me. I settled down to write a New Zealand in 1979 Poetry Notes will be published quarterly book - The Variety of English and will include information about Expression - I had been contemplating Poetry by Eileen Van Trigt goings on at the Archive, articles on for years, wrote in my office, wrote in a historical New Zealand poets of interest, vacation cottage on the Izu Peninsula, 2 occasional poems by invited poets and a wrote at home and eight chapters a year record of recently received donations to In Memoriam: Ruth Gilbert came out in the annual English and 1917-2016 the Archive. American Cultural Studies Research 4 Articles and poems are copyright in the Journal of the university. I went on to names of the individual authors. write a sequel - The Growth of English Ruth Gilbert’s The Luthier The newsletter will be available for free by Niel Wright Fiction - towards the end of my stay in download from the Poetry Archive’s 5 Japan and in what turned out to be my website: last year I also taught on an adjunct basis at The University of the Sacred Rachel Bush (1941-2016) http://poetryarchivenz.wordpress.com 7 Heart, an institution which decided to invite Father Frank McKay to come Comment on James K from New Zealand and lecture on a 8 Baxter’s Complete Prose Michael Duffett on guest basis on Katherine Mansfield. I attended one of these with great Canterbury quakes New Zealand in 1979 pleasure and afterwards we got to know anthology each other. American-based Professor Michael Mindful, in the ludicrously expensive Donate to PANZA through Duffett recalls his visit to New Zealand world of Tokyo in 1979, of Frank’s 9 PayPal in 1979, when he met a number of need to economize, I invited him to stay leading New Zealand poets and writers. with me in the sprawling, book-ridden Recently received His poetry has recently been featured by bungalow I rented in those days on the donations Mark Pirie in broadsheet, issue no. 17. outskirts of the city. He settled down each night, humbly and happily on my About the Poetry Archive I was extremely lucky, at the tender age couch amid my books and cats. There of 30, to be appointed to a full-time followed days of companionable Associate Professorship at a university breakfasts and luxurious lunches (I was for women in Tokyo. Such positions, a member of a swanky academic club) while not exactly sinecures, are plums. I and riotous anecdotal evenings. Frank PANZA was required to teach for about six had one of the most delicious senses of 1 Woburn Road months of the year (Japanese professors humour I had encountered and at the Northland have very long vacations) contribute height of heady laughter at a memory of Wellington 6012 lengthily and annually to the university James K Baxter or Denis Glover or . Autumn 2016 Allen Curnow, he would raise his hands review when I returned, a piece called bellowed from inside the house, “Let to heaven and exclaim through tears of ‘The Pursuit of Petrol’ which Vincent the bloody man come in if he’s here!” hilarity, “Christ have mercy on us!” a O’Sullivan published in the Listener (27 Moments later, I sat with a cup of tea in prayer which I like to think of as not October 1979, page 66) along with a the living room, the bathroom door going unheeded for we continued to poem (1 September 1979, page 8) from opened and there was the great poet in regale each other with stories and laugh. my first book (Evolution - A Japanese his skivvies, giving me the naval salute As I drove him to the airport a few days Journal) entitled ‘Letters’ which an to his Russian Commander’s hat (a gift later he proposed a visit for me to New English critic had the grace to describe from the Soviets). I wish I had had a Zealand to give a lecture on Graham as “a poem perfect in conception and camera! Greene (featured in a chapter of The execution”. Here it is: After this, I went north to Auckland, Growth of English Fiction which he had met Stead and Curnow, who confessed just read) in “all the universities.” I There are two of all of us. to “borrowing” his neighbor Karl’s protested that I would not have time, Today I received two letters, “New Statesman” from time to time, thinking that since there were 300 One to each of me. spent a quiet afternoon with Kendrick universities in Tokyo alone, New The first was signed with “love” Smithyman, a great contrast to the more Zealand would have at least that The second mine “sincerely.” extroverted bards and flew back to number. “There are only five,” he said, Tokyo to my teaching with very so, a few months later, I took off for Friends who sign with love; positive memories. Wellington. Who would be without them? I ended up giving the lecture only at Banks which plead sincerity; Michael Duffett was born in war-time Victoria University of Wellington but in What would we do without them? London, educated at Cambridge, and my thoroughly enjoyable five weeks in has been a poet and professor all over the country, I visited all the campuses. I When we put pen to paper the world. He is currently Associate met Glover, Vincent O’Sullivan, To send our love and amity, Professor of English at San Joaquin Curnow, Karl Stead and Kendrick To which of him to whom we send: Delta College in California. Smithyman. I heard much more about Him with love or his sincerely, Baxter, whose biography Frank was in Can we be sure our note will end? the middle of and the country remains unique in my memory as the one land in On my return from the South Island, I my travels about which I have spent time in Wellington with Denis exclusively positive memories. Glover, to whom I instantly warmed. He What particularly struck me about the was a force of nature, a booming laugh, country was the fact (explained to me a great bright alcoholically-reddened by a geology professor at one of the nose like Mr. Punch and an irresistible universities) that it had been up and cheerful manner. I recall a visit to the down in the ocean five times in its bank with him and, on being asked by a geological history. Nobody is native; timid young lady bank clerk how he the Māori came from Polynesia and the would like his cash, he boomed in reply, Pākehā with Captain Cook. I wrote “Any way at all, my dear. It all goes Michael Duffett by Debra Duffett about this when I drove around the down the drain.” I have come to see that South Island in a yellow mini similar to as an absolutely accurate assessment of the one driven in the 1980 Kiwi film hit the meaning of money. Goodbye Pork Pie: On another occasion when Denis had Poetry by Eileen Van cajoled my services to drive him to the Trigt OFF HAAST PASS Alexander Turnbull Library, I drove to his home. Denis lived in a curiously- “No one has ever been here before,” designed house that had a bathroom on This issue we feature some poems by Was the thought I had as I descended one side of the living room and a Eileen Van Trigt of Greytown. From the car, “no one in geological bedroom on the other. As I arrived Eileen’s poems were recently Time.” No country I have been in has (early, or maybe Denis was late) his discovered by PANZA member Mark given wife Lyn hurried into the garden to meet Pirie. Me this gift and accompanied by me. I later realised it was to forestall me Eileen has a talent for succinct Human hospitality of these hills. from bumping into a semi-clad poet on description and evocative imagery, and the way from bathroom to bedroom. also a sly sense of humour, and well I wrote other things, a study, with Denis, to whom embarrassment was developed satirical skill. photographs of Katherine Mansfield unknown, knew what Lyn was up to and These poems form a selection from her which was published in a Japanese work up till 1995. 2 . Poetry Archive The following biography is given by the So many birds; intent on Under the summer sun author: Perpetuating the species Leaves darkened, became full Performing their courtship rituals A canopy of English oaks “Born in England, Eileen has been On a green lawn Under a northern sky. writing all her life – poems, sketches, Beaks carry stick and straw pieces for radio, music and drama Fashioning nests in thorny hedges. Three months on and reviews. Living in the Wairarapa for Soft-eyed calves and Returned from north to south 50 years, she is much influenced by Frisky lambs soak up sun in lush A row of exotic oaks the natural attributes of the region.