25 March 2013

Tuesday Poem: When X Doesn't Mark the Spot

When X Doesn't Mark the Spot 

There are images we can use
to explain how you are
feeling

We can say that
you have run out of masks
I ask you who you are
and you can only say
who you once have been

You are an actor
on stage
without a script
without a costume
the spotlight shines brightly
as you stand
alone and naked
on an empty stage

Another metaphor
is that you are a painting
all the colours have been removed
even the under drawing
the lines to guide the brush
have gone
all that is left is the primer
all that you have left is
a bare white canvas
and the knowledge that somewhere
underneath
there is a painting
waiting to be
discovered.


This was the first poem of mine to ever get published (well, anywhere other than the school magazine), back in, um 1995 maybe? It was in Poetry NZ, and I was very proud. I'm posting this in honour of the subject, who has had to put up with being in quite a few of my poems over the years. She's just had a special birthday and is coming to stay, briefly, for she is a woman of itchy feet.

More Tuesday Poems over here: http://tuesdaypoem.blogspot.co.nz/

20 March 2013

Helens read poetry on the coast this week


Helen H and Helen L and some other cool folks, and I've written about it over on the Seraph Press site and find I'm to lazy to write about it here: http://www.seraphpress.co.nz/1/post/2013/03/helens-on-the-coast-this-weekend.html.

16 March 2013

Second occasional Twitter Poetry Night NZ on Sunday

The first one was a great success (I blogged about it here: http://wingedink.blogspot.co.nz/2012/12/twitter-poetry-night-nz-last-night.html), so I'm looking forward to the Second Twitter Poetry Night NZ on Sunday. Here's everything you need to know, probably: http://twitterpoetrynightnz.tumblr.com/.

04 March 2013

Tuesday Poem: '4 March'

4 March

A man pulls bread out of his trouser pocket with a shaking hand
and throws it towards the pigeons

Sometimes I catch a glimpse
of all the sadness in the world



It's most unlike me to share just-written work, but sometimes I like to be unpredictable, even to myself. So, this is a poem I wrote earlier this evening.

More Tuesday Poems here: http://tuesdaypoem.blogspot.co.nz/