Wanting to learn this place, this collection of houses and people and lives that I came to willingly, that I chose, open-eyed, and that seemed to even welcome us here with cherry blossom, with the heartbreathless green of new leaf after winter, after wandering lost, that welcomed us with the gentle faith of my own …
Mary Oliver, appositives, and fossicking through “Aunt Leaf”
I do love Mary Oliver's poems, but I'm always nervous when I start reading a new collection. Her writing is becoming ever more stripped back, and relies on the rightness of her observations, rather than dazzling bravado with imagery. But there are plenty of exceptions to that rule, especially in her earlier poems. One that …
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Auckland, Amazement, and why a Red Coat is a Good Thing
Back from my trip to the 2011 Auckland Writers & Readers Festival. I had a great time, and was utterly amazed by the scale of the organisation. I knew it was big, but according to one of my drivers (yes, they even have a team of drivers who whisk authors from airport to hotel to …
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Grief, the international currency
Just under three weeks on from the second Christchurch earthquake, and it seems the tragedies keep piling up. They're still trying to recover bodies in the city of Christchurch, and now Japan is being put to the sword. Having been through both 7.1 and a 6.3 magnitude quakes, I can't even begin to imagine how …
Larkin, lawnmowers, and longing
This evening after shutting the chooks in for the night, I spent about ten minutes just staring back at our house, feeling such huge gratefulness that we were both ok, that the people I love all seem to be ok, that our little house had carried us safely through (so far). That the clouds had cleared, …
A Dark Feathered Art 