This morning I’ve just found out that yet another person I loved has died – the poet Helen Bascand, two days ago (April 27th). She was 86. I’m going to try to keep it together enough to make this a seemly obituary, but it’s going to be a bit of a struggle. Helen was my writing partner …
The Trouble with Teaching
Lets start with a quote from the late Terry Pratchett, that quite neatly sums this post up: Getting an education was a bit like a communicable sexual disease. It made you unsuitable for a lot of jobs, and then you had the urge to pass it on.” ― Terry Pratchett, Hogfather And there’s the problem. Since …
I’m a Best New Zealand poem!
Hooray! My astronaut poem, Earthrise, has been chosen by Vincent O’Sullivan for Best New Zealand Poems 2014! You can see it (and all the others) here. (Go take a look. It’s a great resource.) I’m feeling quite chuffed about it. I had a lovely time writing it, and doing research around the first forays into space. …
Terry Pratchett loses to his ‘embuggerance’
I’ve been going to blog half a dozen times since this year began, but life kept getting in the way. But now I have to. The writer who I adored above all others died this morning. You can go and look up his biography for yourselves, or read any of the several obituaries (a few links: from …
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The Last Post (… well, for this year)
Well here we are, the end of another year gradually tattered and worn away to the frayed ends of its tapestry (and the usually-invisible-but-probably-essential polyesterish filaments that give the whole thing some chance of making it through a whole twelve months). (Probably not my best analogy, but then I’m married to a textile technologist.) It’s been …
A Dark Feathered Art 