Janis Freegard's Blog, page 25
June 23, 2011
Having fun with Tagxedo
Here's a giraffe made from the words on my blog.
and here's a map of South America made from my poem Zot and the Axolotls. Thanks Tagxedo.
June 20, 2011
Tuesday Poem – The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus
The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Emma Lazarus, 1883
I always loved that "huddled masses" bit. "The New Colossus" is the sonnet engraved on a bronze plaque and mounted inside the Statue of Liberty.
June 6, 2011
Tuesday Poem – Island Farewell by Mary Cresswell
Only three
of us are still here
We have no words in
common — for living,
drowning, not even
"water"
The sandspit
went first, breaking up
palm trees, coconuts
thatched roofs and babies
bobbed alongside man-
grove pods
Vapour trails
melt into long clouds
Their crisp beginnings
chatter coordinates
to stars with no words
for us
I'm delighted to be posting this poem, from Mary Cresswell's new collection, Trace Fossils, published by Steele Roberts. The manuscript of Trace Fossils was chosen by Fleur Adcock as first runner-up for the University of Otago's inaugural Kathleen Grattan Award.
The poems are organised in 4 sections: The age of trees, Changing sea levels, Cloud and The age of salt. It's a great book, full of vivid images and wordplay, with interesting use of formal structures – the poem above is in counted syllables, each stanza following the same syllabic pattern.
In her introduction to the book, Mary explains that "A trace fossil is visible fossil evidence – a footprint, trail, burrow, track or other impression – of the life activities of an animal, plant or other natural force."
Mary Cresswell is a poet and science editor, who lives on the Kapiti Coast. She was born in Los Angeles and moved to New Zealand in 1970. Her poetry has appeared in New Zealand, Australian, Canadian, US and UK literary journals. She is co-author of Millionaire's Shortbread (University of Otago, 2003) and author of the satirical collection Nearest and Dearest (Steele Roberts, 2009). I interviewed Mary on this blog , as part of her virtual book tour, when Nearest and Dearest was released. See also Tim Jones' interview with Mary.
May 24, 2011
Tales for Canterbury e-book live now!
The e-book version of Tales for Canterbury has now been released, with copies available from Random Static Press. A paperback version will be released soon. I'm very pleased to have a story in it (The Magician).
Tales for Canterbury is an anthology of 34 short stories loosely themed around survival, hope and future. All profits will be donated to the Red Cross Earthquake Appeal.
It features stories by RJ Astruc, Philippa Ballantine, Jesse Bullington, Anna Caro, Cat Connor, Brenda Cooper, Debbie Cowens, Matt Cowens, Merrilee Faber, AJ Fitzwater, Janis Freegard, Neil Gaiman, Cassie Hart, A.M. Harte, Karen Healey, Leigh K Hunt, Lynne Jamneck, Patty Jansen, Gwyneth Jones, Tim Jones, Kim Koning, Jay Lake, Helen Lowe, Kate Mahony, Tina Makereti, Juliet Marillier, Angel Leigh McCoy, Linda Niccol, Ripley Patton, Simon Petrie, Grant Stone, Jeff Vandermeer, Mary Victoria and Sean Williams.
Pre-orders are now available from Random Static Press.
Many thanks to editors Anna Caro and Cassie Hart who made it all happen. So far, they've raised over $2,000 for Christchurch.
May 9, 2011
More shameless self-promotion
If you want a preview of some of the poems in Kingdom Animalia, here are some links to online journal Trout:
and here is the link to a video of me reading The Icon Dies
and the link to more photos of the launch which I hope to add to.
L to R My cousin Heather, my father, me.
Next Sunday, I will be reading from Kingdom Animalia:the Escapades of Linnaeus for 10 minutes at the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival Open Mike:
45OPEN MIKE
A festival institution, Open Mike shoots unpublished poets onto the stage alongside stars of the poetry firmament. On the hour, established poets perform for ten minutes. The rest of the time, five-minute slots are available to anyone who wants to read – just put your name down on the board on the day.
SCHEDULE OF POETS
10:00 – 10:10 Apirana Taylor
10:30 – 10:40 Emma Neale
11:00 – 11:10 Anna Jackson
11:30 – 11:40 Joanna Preston
12:00 – 12:10 Janis Freegard
12:30 – 12:40 Rives
Event Details
Date: 15 May
Time: 10:00 a.m. – 01:00 p.m.
Venue: AIR NZ FOYER, LEVEL 5, AOTEA CENTRE
Category: FREE EVENT, POETRY AND PERFORMANCE
Maybe see you there!
May 5, 2011
Launch photos
That's me in the bird mask, Peter (MC & my partner) in the bat mask. Check out the botanical wallpaper, complete with Linnaean names.
Fleur on the left, me signing.
Mask made by Sally Blyth of Masquerade
May 2, 2011
Kingdom Animalia: The Escapades of Linnaeus
My poetry collection, Kingdom Animalia: the Escapades of Linnaeus, is now officially available. If you're in Wellington, I'd love to see you at the launch this Wednesday:
Venue: the Terrace Bar, upstairs at the Garden Club (13 Dixon St, Wellington, just around the corner from the reverse bungy on Taranaki St, next to Subway, used to be Wellington Repertory Theatre)
Date: Wednesday 4 May 2011
Time: 5:30pm to 7:00 pm (reading at 6ish)
Featuring Animal Biscuits, Cheese Straws and Various Beverages
You are kindly invited to wear an Animal Mask or Similar (Not Compulsory).
All welcome. Bring your friends.
'Bluebird' by Mary McIntyre
Here's what it says about the book on the AUP website:
Kingdom Animalia is a collection of poems that explore the various interactions between human beings and other animals, but also deals with wider subjects: love and loss, evolution and conservation, sex and death. The poems, which involve animals, as main subject or as passing guests, are arranged according to the six classes devised by eighteenth-century naturalist Carl Linnaeus, whose life's mission was to classify the natural world. Modern taxonomy has evolved considerably but this standardised naming system is still a common language for classifying the natural world. The sections are linked by a prose poem about Linnaeus' life.
ISBN 978 1 86940 473 4, 210 x 148mm, paperback, 88p, $24.99| order this book
Isn't the cover stunning? I feel very lucky. The painting is by Mary McIntyre (photograph by Jacqui Blanchard) and the design is by Jacinda Torrance. Last year I saw a companion painting (same figure – the artist's granddaughter – in the same garden, but in a different pose) called 'Family Life, Puriri Drive' by Mary McIntyre at the Portrait Gallery in Wellington and thought to myself, wouldn't that make the perfect cover for Kingdom Animalia? The following week, Anna Hodge from AUP emailed me the draft cover with 'Bluebird' on it. Spookily serendipitous.
I have added a 'Kingdom Animalia' page to this blog, which includes a species list (using modern taxonomy rather than Linnaeus' system) of all the animals in the book. I'm struggling a bit with the formatting, so please bear with me while I get it sorted. (I do realise most people don't get as excited about species lists as I do.)
I will be posting more about Linnaeus and notes about the poems in the book as I go. Hope to see you at the launch!
April 28, 2011
Interview with Chris Tse
A couple of weeks ago I posted a poem by Chris Tse from the recently released collection 'AUP New Poets 4′. To find out more about his poetry, his trip to China and what else he's doing these days, read on…
Your collection in AUP New Poets 4 is called 'Sing Joe' and this is also the title of two of the poems. Can you tell us a bit about that title.
'Sing Joe' is a transliteration of the Chinese phrase 'to have the surname Joe' (the family name on my Mum's side). Also, music is a strong influence on my writing so it seemed appropriate.
Many of your poems draw on your own family stories and your great grandfather's immigration to New Zealand. Some of the most poignant poems in the book (for me) were the ones about your great-grandmother, left behind in China. What led you to focus on these family stories and what sort of reaction have you had from family members?
In the first week of my MA year I wrote a poem about my great-grandfather as part of a writing exercise and from that point on my classmates encouraged me to explore this topic. It was an area I had consciously avoided writing about because I thought no one would be interested, but I soon realised that these stories deserved to be heard, and that there is an audience for them.
My family have been really supportive and generous with letting me share these stories. Hopefully they see that I've approached it with the utmost respect for my ancestors, especially since I have written about some fairly delicate moments in their lives. My great-grandparents' situation wasn't uncommon back then – many Chinese men remarried when they came to New Zealand because it was near impossible to bring their wives out too. My great-grandmother wasn't mentioned much when we were growing up so these poems were a chance to give her a voice.
You spent a month in China as part of your research and you explore that experience in poems like 'Deracinate'. Can you tell us more about your visit to China and how it shaped the poems in the book? Was it your first visit?
The NZ Chinese Association holds an annual tour to China for young Chinese New Zealanders. It's a chance for them to visit China and connect with their roots in addition to experiencing Chinese culture on a number of levels. I was a member of the 2005 group along with 39 others, including my brother and a cousin. We left for China just weeks after handing in my final folio for the MA. It was my first time there, and though I enjoyed the trip I won't be rushing back anytime soon – for now I feel like I've gained all I need from China. Maybe in a few years I'll feel the need to reconnect or explore further.
My Aunty, Janet Joe, has been the tour guide since its inception and part of her job is to help people find where their ancestral villages are. That aspect of the trip was by far the most memorable experience for me and, having spent a year writing and thinking abut my ancestors, being in my great-grandparents' house was like coming full circle. The experiences and memories I gathered on that trip helped to revisit the poems I'd written from a new perspective. For example, 'Deracinate', in its finished form, is actually a composite of material written before and after the trip.
What's next on the agenda with your writing?
I've had a few ideas for future poetry collections, but I've settled on one to focus on this year. I've just been accepted into the NZSA's mentor programme so that's going to be the much-needed motivation to get on with it. In addition to poetry I'm also working on a feature film script that's been brewing for a few years and I'll continue tackling the scary world (for me at least) of short stories. My mum of all people keeps nagging me to move into fiction!
Do you set aside a particular time and place to write?
I've tried being one of those writers that sets aside time everyday but I find that it ends up being too much of a chore and counter-productive. Like most writers I have my lulls in output, but it doesn't bother me as much as it did when I started writing seriously – I've always got so many projects in the pipeline that I always feel like I'm working towards something. With the mentor programme this year and the goal of finishing a new collection I'll need to be a bit more disciplined but I guess knowing that someone will be expecting me to produce work will help.
What occupies your time when you're not writing?
Aside from the shackles of a 9-to-5 job I've been working on an online TV series with my filmmaking friends. I'm constantly tinkering away with music too and have a few projects on the go at the moment. I'm an avid Ultimate Frisbee player too so one day I might have to try my hand at writing the definitive Ultimate Frisbee poem!
Thanks Chris! Great to see one of your poems in Wellington newspaper The DomPost today.
April 25, 2011
Tuesday Poem – A Gal of the Streets, G A Studdert Kennedy
Verily I say unto you, the . . . harlots go into the Kingdom
of Heaven before you.
I MET 'er one night down in Leicester Square,
With paint on 'er lips and dye on 'er 'air,
With 'er fixed glad eye and 'er brazen stare,–
She were a gal on the streets.
I was done with leave-on my way to France,
To the ball of death and the devil's dance;
I was raving mad-and glad of the chance
To meet a gal on the streets.
I went with 'er 'ome–to the cursed game,
And we talked of men with the talk of shame;
I 'appened to mention a dead pal's name,
She were a gal on the streets.
"Your pal! Do you know 'im?" she stopped and said
"'Ow is 'e? Where is 'e? I once knowed Ted."
I stuttered and stammered aht–"'E's gorn–dead."
She were a gal on the streets.
She stood there and swayed like a drunken man,
And 'er face went green where 'er paint began,
Then she muttered, "My Gawd, I carn't"; and ran–
She were a gal on the streets.
Rev Geoffrey A Studdert Kennedy, (1883 – 1929), was born in Leeds, in England and served as a padre on the Western Front in World War I. He was nicknamed 'Woodbine Willie' for giving Woodbine cigarettes to injured and dying soldiers. He became a pacifist during the war and wrote many poems expressing the experiences of ordinary soldiers and others affected by the war, like the one above.
A Gal of the Streets is from his collection The Unutterable Beauty, a book I've had for many years. Many of his poems are religious (as you might expect from a minister), but it's the "dialect poems" at the end of the book I've always liked best. The entire text of The Unutterable Beauty is now online, if you'd like to read more.
I wanted to post something to acknowledge Anzac Day. I chose this poem because it talks about the effects of war on the loved ones left behind, as well as the terrible effects on the soldiers themselves.
You can read the other Tuesday poems by clicking on the quill to the left.
April 11, 2011
Book Launch – Kingdom Animalia 4th May 2011
painting by Mary McIntyre
Here is an invitation to a book launch
Animalia Invitation
You will notice (if you click on the link) that the invitation is upside down. No amount of rotating it and saving it will make it appear upright. You'll just have to stand on your head. I have also failed to insert it into the post properly; all I can manage is the link. C'est la vie. Please come anyway.
This is what it says:
Janis Freegard hereby requests the Pleasure of Your Company at an
Exciting Social Event on the occasion of the
Launch of her Poetry Book entitled
Kingdom Animalia: the Escapades of Linnaeus
published by Auckland University Press
Venue: the Terrace Bar at the Garden Club (13 Dixon St, Wellington,
just around the corner from Taranaki St, next to Subway)
Date: Wednesday 4 May 2011
Time: 5:30pm to 7:00 pm
There will be Animal Biscuits, Cheese Straws and Alcoholic Beverages for your Delectation and Delight. You are kindly invited to wear a Mask (although this is Not Compulsory). All welcome. Do tell your friends.
