Poetry reading: Lost Relatives by Siobhan Harvey (11/52)

I haven't been keeping up with recording the poetry books that I've been reading, but I have been reading. I'm in danger of losing track, so it's probably time to start recording them again.

First up is Lost Relatives by Siobhan Harvey, which I've mentioned previously when I included a poem from it, 'Tooth', as my Tuesday poem. I said then that it was lovely meeting old friends in here - poems I'd come across in other places, including some I'd published in JAAM many years ago. The book tells a story of loss, and of gain. Of leaving an old home and family and country behind, and coming to a new country, building a new life, with a new family, and new connections.

Tuesday poem: 'Tooth' by Siobhan Harvey

Tooth

Today, you’re twelve teeth old,
and we fossick for shells,
star-fish, pipi and paua

until the tide goes out
when we wave goodbye
to yachts moored in the marina.

At home, you float
across polished floors
until you keel over.

Your jaw leaves an alveolus
in the matai deep enough
for a tear-drop’s caress.

As I stroke you,
your eyes collect water;
your gums are an ocean of blood.

But only when you’re sleeping,
do I discover a tooth
anchored to blue woollen blanket.

Suddenly, you’re eleven teeth old
and have grown, like Lazarus,
younger beneath moonlight.

White and hull-shaped,
tooth’s a boat,
isolated by low tide.

In the morning,
I’ll show you how it can rest
safely upon its starboard.


Siobhan Harvey has just launched her first New Zealand collection of poetry, Lost Relatives, from which 'Tooth' comes. She's lived in New Zealand for a decade, but grew up in UK. She's the poetry editor for Takahe, and is a consulting editor of International Literary Quarterly. She was the editor of Words Chosen Carefully: New Zealand Writers in Discussion and Our Own Kind: 100 New Zealand Poems about Animals. I got to know Siobhan after accepting three of her poems for JAAM 22, and met her for the first time when she came down to Wellington as part of the Winter Readings. Since then, I've met up with her each time I go to Auckland, and it has been lovely getting to know her.

Lost Relatives is, in great part, about Siobhan's experience of moving to New Zealand - leaving behind and, in a sense, losing her home and her family. And then building a new life here, with her new family, her partner, her son, and her 'found' family. Sometimes reading Lost Relatives was like finding old friends - there were many poems I'd read before, including those three poems I'd published in JAAM 22 all those years ago.

Last Thursday I went along to the offices of Steele Roberts for the Wellington launch of Lost Relatives. (She also launched it in Auckland, where she lives.) I wasn't surprised to find a bunch of other writers there, because Siobhan has a knack of making connections with people - not in a 'networking' sort of way, but in a genuine connection sort of way - and has made friends (found family) all over the country. Roger Steele began, Harry Ricketts launched the book, and then Siobhan spoke and did an excellent reading of some of the poems in the book.

I've chosen 'Tooth' as my Tuesday poem because it was one of the poems she read, and I was particularly struck by it - by its simplicity - a story of her son falling and losing a tooth - which belies its intricateness. I love especially the marine metaphors - 'keel over', 'your gums are an ocean of blood', discovering the tooth 'anchored' to the blanket, the tooth 'isolated by low tide'. I also really liked the idea of her son being 'twelve teeth old', and then going back in time to being only eleven teeth old. He was at the launch, and is now six (I think), so many more than eleven teeth old - but still has the gap where the tooth once was.

As always, check out the other Tuesday poems via the Tuesday Poems blog: http://tuesdaypoem.blogspot.com/.

JAAM 25 at print

Yay, JAAM 25 is at print!

If you need some background, JAAM (Just Another Art Movement) is a literary magazine that was started by a bunch of people, including me and led by Mark Pirie, at Victoria University in 1995. Since then it’s grown and expanded and now is one of the major literary mags in NZ.

The work in the 25th issue of JAAM was selected by guest editor Siobhan Harvey, a writer, reviewer and creative writing teacher. Siobhan has made her home in Auckland after emigrating from England. Of her selection, she says in her editorial:

Using my émigré outsider’s sensibility and eye, I aimed for samples of the best work and writers from what might be broadly termed the various sections of contemporary domestic literature: those who, for instance, are stridently innovative; those who aim for accessibility; those who are alternative; those who are influenced by American modernism and postmodernism; those who seek to forge a distinctly New Zealand form of postmodernism; those who combine some or
all of these traits; those who reject them all or combine none; and so on.

As you might expect, the selection is quite varied, which is usually the case with JAAM. And, as is also usual, there is a good mix of well-known writers (such as Alistair Paterson, Jessica Le Bas, Jack Ross, Iain Sharp, Kapka Kassabova, Harry Ricketts, to name just a few) along with new and emerging writers.

There are also some images by Peter Schwartz, including art of the cover. It’s going to be a colour cover this time (they’re usually black and white) and will be, I think, particularly attractive.

It’s getting quite late in the year for publication, but I’ll try to give it more of a push in January. For more information about JAAM, or to subscribe, check out the JAAM homepage, the JAAM MySpace page, or email jaammagazine@yahoo.co.nz.