Poetry Nz 36

Description

ISBN: POETNZ36
Title: Poetry Nz 36
Author: POETRY NEW ZEALAND

This issue features the poetry of Marissa Johnpillai, an innovative young poet from Christchurch.

Poets often write about nothing or, rather, the phenomenon of nothingness. The poet alludes to something which can’t be known; it is the ‘other’ in poetry. Some of the time, that nothing seems to have a sense of identity, a ‘something’ about it. This is both curious and appealing. Another common referent is light. Poets want some kind of light to work its way into their lines. Again, it has a sensibility to it, which is more than something which illumines or makes clear. Poets sometimes adopt forms and adapt old ones. They need to be wary of the trap form can create but open to the fact that a form may take poets into spaces new to them. Occasionally in Poetry NZ you’ll read examples of a specific form. The flow of lightness of language is sometimes found in the spoken word, and this often underpins the poet’s work. Some poems are close to dialogue, albeit lifted above it in order to avoid the mundane. The familiar, or the ‘truthful’, in terms of accurate rendering, is what makes the words buzz in our ears and makes poetry what it is.

Sad news for this issue is that Frank Pervan died last year. He was an occasional contributor to and a regular supporter of this and many other literary magazines. He will be missed.

We were also shocked to hear of the death of Bernard Gadd. The more we think about Bernard’s work and literary activities, the more reasons we have to be grateful to him for the contribution he’s made to New Zealand literature. His poetry has continued to develop late in life, encountering as it did difficult historical periods and dealing with challenging themes. He was an exponent of haiku and the related forms of tanka and haibun, and made a significant contribution to the development of those forms in this country. He worked hard to make the best local writing available to students, editing several anthologies of short stories and scripts for New Zealand schools, as well as the 1960s and 1970s poetry anthology Real Fire (Square One Press, Dunedin, 2001). Some of his most recent work was featured in Poetry NZ 34. It’s a privilege to be in a position of being able to pay tribute to him. It is fitting also that this issue contains some of his last poems and a review of his latest book, End of the Snapshots. We lament the fact that there will be no more new work from Bernard.

Noted poet Meg Campbell died on 17 November, the day before her latest collection was to be launched. Our sympathies are with the partners and families of each of these departed friends. If New Zealand poetry continues to flourish, to experiment and explore, it is, in part, because of the legacy that these generous-hearted and unique poets have left us.

— Owen Bullock, March 2008

Format: Paperback
Available stock: 2