Just a quick reminder to everyone that the takahē poetry competition closes at the end of this month, so you need to get your poems in soon! The judge for this year is the delightful Riemke Ensing, who will be awarding a first place ($250!), a second place ($100!) and two runners-up (a year’s subscription to takahē …
A Good First Line (and Hard Work)
A few years ago (too many to be able to track down the source again, curses!) I came across a reference to writing a decent poem essentially coming down to “a good first line, plus hard work”. An interesting assertion, and the focus of today’s waffle. Lets begin with some definitions, courtesy of Wikipedia: “Incipit” is a Latin word meaning …
And Isabelle Hudson makes three
To prove that deaths are of a jamais deux sans trois persuasion, I’ve just heard of another loss to the Canterbury poetry community – the seemingly indomitable Isabelle Hudson died on Saturday (May 30), at the ripe old age of 94. I didn’t know Isabelle well, but I always enjoyed talking with her. She loved poetry, and …
In memory of John O’Connor
We’ve lost another one. John O’Connor died suddenly last Tuesday (May 12th), aged 66. And there is a terrible irony here – he was Helen Bacand’s first publisher, as well as a longtime friend and mentor. John was a huge part of the Canterbury poetry scene, especially haiku. He was one of the first people in this …
“Loss” by Helen Bascand
Loss It takes years to understand how thought reached out, pulled down the blind, folded the sheets, stacked them with lavender in some spare cupboard. You are not the only bereft, they say. I do not want unused sheets, closed doors, last year’s scented bags that smell of dust. I do not want the husk …
A Dark Feathered Art 