Pages

Friday, July 21, 2006

National Poetry Day

Today is National Poetry Day in New Zealand. It has been celebrated with underwhelming enthusiasm - that is to say, I hardly noticed until I overheard a reference on the radio which was on in the background at work.

Still, certain things have been happening. There was a reading at the university at lunchtime, which I couldn't get to. The winner of the poetry category of New Zealand's Montana Book Awards was announced. There was an article in this morning's newspaper, with comments on how it was not possible to earn a living as a poet, and some haiku, mainly political, written by the newspaper columnists.

And - not in New Zealand but still on the subject of poetry, I noticed the new Guardian Poetry Workshop is online. Strangely they forgot to include the instructions for e-mailing your poem, and the deadline. Assume a deadline of a few days only, and if you want to enter, check last month's wokshop for the e-mail address. But even if you don't want to enter, there is a useful discussion of animal poems with quite a few examples as links.

Some further links:
Leaf Salon (news and reviews on literature in New Zealand, including poetry)
Best New Zealand Poems - the selection of the "best" 25 poems each year from 2001 - influenced of course by the editor's personal preferences. (There is a different editor each year).
New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre

Exploring the last, I found a poem which both fits in with this week's Poetry Thursday topic - sex - and with the Guardian Poetry Workshop theme - animals:
Snail Ears

A couple of addenda: I am going back to yesterday's post as promised, and adding a comment about the background to the poem - though many felt it was unnecessary.

I was thinking of following tradition, and posting "100 things about me" as my 100th post, but I have just noticed that I am up to 104 posts already. Oh well. My list is only up to 38 things. I'm having trouble figuring out what is actually interesting about me. I may post it eventually.

7 comments:

Carola said...

Howdee Catherine!! if i yelled loud enough, i thought you might've heard me, but Sydney got in the road and drowned me out :D

I like the way you right, sort of, straight thinking mixed with witty humour and add a dash of Noo Zulland and you have you!

I'll come back im sure!
by the way, that rascal Michele sent me over here to make sure all things are good and to say Gudday aswell :D

Happy Weekend!

Star said...

Thanks for the link to the Guardian. I am unlikely to send anything in, but the exercise is still fun to explore.

November Rain said...

I like poetry alot to... thanks for the links going to enjoy these


here via michelle

Deb R said...

I hope you eventually come up with 100 things you'd like to share because I love reading those 100 Things lists. :-)

You could always post 25 at a time here and there until you have 100. I've seen other people do that.

Anonymous said...

I enjoy poetry and lyrics and shall take a look around your references. A friend of mine just published a short poetry book called "the 3am club" and its listed across on my main blog here. I listed one of the poems there too.

And hiya-Michele sent me!

RennyBA said...

Happy Poetry Day from Norway!
Hello, Michele sent me and I am glad course I've never been in New Zealand and visiting your site was a great start!
Have a great end to your week:-)

Anonymous said...

We have a whole poetry month here, but mostly it goes unnoticed.