Monday, July 26, 2010

A touch of poesie to start the week

If I have one complaint about the IIML's Writers on Mondays it's a small one. And completely self-centred. But it sure is difficult to get from Thorndon to the Marae on level four of Te Papa (20 mins brisk walking), catch a session, then return to work without having consumed your share of lunch minutes for the week. Despite what people say about public servants, I'm normally lucky to get ten minutes to eat my lunch at my desk while reading less urgent emails.

So while I would love to catch every Writers on Mondays session, it's not always practicable.

But there was no way I was going to miss today's session, featuring eight poets from Best NZ Poems 2009.   I blogged about the launch of BNZP09 back in March.

The poets that read today were: Geoff Cochrane, Lynn Davidson, Lynn Jenner, Tim Upperton, Chris Price (who doubled as chair), Greg O'Brien, Marty Smith, Louise Wallace and Ashleigh Young.

Each read their poem which was selected for BNZP09 by Scottish-domiciled, expat Kiwi Robyn Marsack, and also read another work by a New Zealand poet of their choosing, such as Alastair Te Ariki Campbell, Cilla McQueen, and James Brown (who was chosen twice: I was sitting next to James and he seemed quietly chuffed).

You can read all 25 poems selected for BNZP09 here.

It was a great way to kick off what promises to be a great week for poetry, with National Poetry Day on Friday. There are several events on in the capital, so I'm still weighing up my options, but I think I'm leaning towards the Ballroom Cafe Poets event at the Museum of City and Sea.

No comments: