One of the (many) things I love about October is that it is the month when the annual anthologies start appearing. I have in my hands the latest Best American Poetry; the NZPS anthology (Building a Time Machine) launch is just around the corner, and the latest Forward Book of Poetry is winging its way across …
Inspiration, breath and patience
Writing poems is like waiting for lightning to strike. But it's hard to order your life around that. – Stephen Dobyns from As the Poet Said … I was thinking about the business of inspiration. What a strange variation of it we seem to have as poets, and all the ways we complicate it. When I …
Canterbury Poets’ Spring 2012 Readings Series
Hooray hooray, spring has sprung, the garden is going ape-shit, and it’s time for the CPC Poetry Readings again! Isn’t it a nifty poster? Not to mention a fascinating lineup? (Well, other than me.) (No, bollocks to that – including me!) You can download a copy of the official poster for yourself, your friends and/or …
Continue reading "Canterbury Poets’ Spring 2012 Readings Series"
Things Teaching Has Taught Me
1. Build it, and they will come. Timetable it, and they might. Or not. Depends, really. 2. No matter how organised you think you are, you aren't. 3. Bulldog clips. 4. The class that you're sure will be really popular will take the full amount of time available to clear the minimum numbers threshold. 5. …
The Barbarians may have been Slightly Delayed
I know a lot of the posts I’ve done have been doom and gloom stories about the dire state of publishing; of poetry in particular, and literature in general. And I stand by my comments: things are very definitely not peachy. New Zealand writers make bugger-all, and poets negative bugger-all. And it’s the same all …
Continue reading "The Barbarians may have been Slightly Delayed"
A Dark Feathered Art 