Two days out from Launch Day, and I’ve started obsessively checking the Metservice website for weather forecasts for Christchurch on Poetry Day. (Not looking great at the moment (southerlies, some rain). Mind you, given their usual level of accuracy, a bad forecast now should make me feel comforted …)
Thanks to everyone who has RSVP-ed. Seating and catering have been planned accordingly. (Those who haven’t, see below.) It’s getting exciting again!
Two related but separate notes – best wishes to Marissa Johnpillai for the launch tonight of her chapbook, Hymn for Her. I wish I could be there. It should be a great evening.
And I’m being interviewed tomorrow at 9.40 am on Plains FM’s Mornings show, about Montana Poetry Day and related matters. It’s a live broadcast, so anything could happen!
A Brief Launch FAQ:
Q: I haven’t RSVP-ed, but I’d like to come anyway. Is that ok, or will I be frogmarched out in front of everybody, stripped naked, and left to run through the backstreets of Christchurch clad only in the remnants of my dignity?
A: If you haven’t RSVP-ed yet but would like to come anyway, please come! You may just have to arm-wrestle for the last few nibbles and/or chairs if we run really full.
As to the other … no. Not even if you ask nicely.
Q: I want to buy a copy of the book? How much?
A: Good for you! Obviously a person of excellent taste.
The book will be on sale on the night – $30. (Technically $29.99, but I’m assuming you’re asking how much dosh you need to hand over for your copy.) I’ve been told that anybody wanting to pay by EFTPOS can get cash out from the bar downstairs, but cheques made out to Madras Cafe Books will also be acceptable.
Q: I want a signed copy, but I can’t make it to the launch.
A: I’m quite happy to sign copies by post – email me for the address.
Or you could contact David Ault at the Madras Cafe Bookshop to buy a copy from him for me to sign – he’s selling books on the night, so adding one or two more shouldn’t be a problem.
Q: I want to come, really I do. But I also want to go to the other Montana Poetry Day events …
A: I understand your quandary. So come to one first, then tootle off to the other! I won’t mind, I promise.
Books will be available for sale and signing all night, and you can always order yourself a snack (or a meal) if the nibbles have run out.
Q: What’s a touchstone poem?
A: A touchstone poem is a poem that is special to you in some way – maybe it’s one that you memorised without meaning to, or that sums up a part of your life perfectly, or one that showed you how to do something you didn’t know how to do. It doesn’t have to be the poem that you admire most, or even necessarily one that you think is very well made. It’s about the relationship you have to the poem, and to poetry. A poem you go back to. The first poem you’d save from a burning building.
A Dark Feathered Art 