Joanna Preston: Tasmanaut Poet
The poet judges not as a judge judges, but as the sun falling around a helpless thing. – Walt Whitman Here we are, finally. The winners, losers and place-getters have been chosen, and the list dispatched to the competition secretary. Now I just have to finish polishing my judge’s report, and clean the blu-tack marks …
Continue reading "The Sun and Helpless Things – the end of judgement"
A justice with grave justices shall sit; He praise their wisdom, they admire his wit. – John Gay, from ‘The Birth of the Squire’. After the best part of five days deep immersion in the top 32 contenders for the 2011 NZPS Haiku Competition, I've finally got my order sorted. Well, almost. I now know …
Continue reading "In pursuit of wit and wisdom – the final decisions"
There is in each of us a stream of tendency, whether you choose to call it philosophy or not, which gives coherence and direction to thought and action. Judges cannot escape that current any more than other mortals. ... We may try to see things as objectively as we please. None the less, we can …
Continue reading "Eyes and clean slates – a shortlist is born"
Judex damnatur cum nocens absolvitur. The judge is condemned when the guilty is acquitted. – Syrus, Maxims. After a short break while the earth moved, it's back to judging haiku. This is where I become the anal-retentive, über-picky, petty, finicky and super-hard-to-satisfy critic that people have always warned me I was becoming. (I believe that …
Continue reading "Acquittal and Condemnation – week two of the deliberations"
Times before number, condemned criminals had waited for their last dawn. Yet until the very end they could hope for a reprieve; human judges can show mercy. But against the laws of nature, there is no appeal. – Arthur C. Clarke, The Wind From the Sun: Stories of the Space Age (1972). Well it's been …
Continue reading "Dawn, reprieve, and mercy – the preliminary deliberations continue"
A Dark Feathered Art 