Angela

In between catching babies and cannulating children while on night shift, I am catching up with a writing backlog for Lumiere...here is the latest, on my colleague Angela Andrews. One way of finding out what makes me tick as a poet (and doctor - yes, I'm introspective and self centred, sort of have to be, as a writer) is to interview others, and Angela was very helpful a year ago when I was looking around at Masters of Creative Writing programs. We seemed to understand each other immediately, even though we've never yet met face to face! By chance we are in the same city (Palmy North) right now, so I'm looking forward to finally meeting her.

Year of the Rat

The Chinese New Year is coming earlier than usual this year.. and this year is "my' year. Yes, I'm a Rat. The tail end of a Water Rat, to be precise.

Auckland is kicking off celebrations early next weekend with a market day and performances, including (we hope) an Asian Poetry Stall. This is a "first' for Auckland and probably NZ, though poets who identify as Asian are nothing new in countries like the US.

Stand by for more details of F.O.B....

ACCC Chinese New Year Festival & Market Day at the ASB Showgrounds: Halls 1& 2, 217 Greenlane West, on Saturday, 19 January 2008 from 9.30am to 3.30pm. Official opening at 10.00 am by the Prime Minister.

F.O.B.

Last year's Chinglish launch, which had people spilling out of a small dim sum shop in order to hear a bunch of largely unknown poets of Asian and non Asian extraction, gave me one of those slow moments of epiphany. (Are epiphanies allowed to be slow?) I realised that in Auckland, we have now reached "critical mass", in terms of Asian artists and writers who are articulating their unique take on identity and culture.

Of course, people of 'Asian' extraction hate being lumped in under the blanket term "Asians". Apart from coming from different countries, in different eras of immigration, and with vast differences in attitude between generations, we're all individuals. We just happen to be a bit more confused about the "duty to the group" philosophy of the East vs the "look after number one" philosophy of the West.

Anyway, having done that disclaimer, I'll go on with the story. Our little 'subculture' started talking, and I had several conversations with David Tsai, a rapper and poet, and together we hatched the idea of having an Asian Poetry Night. It will be called Funky Oriental Beats or FOB for short (obvious wordplay). And it's going to take place in Feb or March and feature a diverse lineup of Asian poets, spoken word artists and musicians. Watch this space!

Panto review... Aladdin

More "Southern Correspondence" reviews, this time from Dunedin... here and here.

A Thesis on the Plumpness of Oysters

1.1

Ostreola Saccostrea
Edulis virginica,
Cassostrea conchaphila
Glomerata gigas.

1.2

Ostrea
Tiostrea
Ostreida
Pteriidae. (i)

2.1

rock sliced tide
creams the salted sorrows
of drowned men.

2.2

drip feed the juicy
sea past crusted shell,
elixir of Venus. (ii)

2.3

pearls are
the cry of
distant cousins.


3.1

the best ones are found
by ribboned sole
and flagellation of rock.

3.2

those missing coastline
may also drive
to a restaurant
with white tablecloths. (iii)

4.1

it is not enough
for the knife to be sharp,
the blade to be whet. One must also
have a dry mouth
from all that salivation.

4.2

it is said
the best ones
are still squirming
as they slide.

4.3

salt stomach
slipped sideways
on the tongue.
At last
the gush
of sweet wetness
between teeth.


Footnotes

i. Tiostrea lutaria, the fairest of them all.
ii. Strictly, oysters are not drip fed. They are filter feeders, sifting out nutrients from sediment and stabilising coastal ecosystems.
iii. Small outback pubs in the middle of the desert do not, generally, have the best oysters.

Southern Sojourn

Been working down south recently, with lots of adventures to report (which is of course why I haven't reported on them, duh). Maybe some of them will prove poem-worthy and eventually appear on these pages. But in an attempt to show that I haven't been a total slacker on the writing front, here's the link to my latest Lumiere article, Sea Cruise. A little conceit of mine over the summer - I am Lumiere's roving 'Southern Correspondent'. Though I'm not sure how "Southern" the upcoming Palmerston North segment of my travels will seem to people who are not Aucklanders....

Creative types (like poets) have more sex

Seeing as this comment attracted so much interest when I mentioned it at a recent Poetry Live, here's the link so that all may benefit from this valuable information. The news article doesn't mention how exactly this study was carried out (one has visions of earnest scientists shadowing poets in shady bars), but I might try to track down the original article.

Also disturbing is that the researchers are careful to state that they don't know why this is. Is it just that creative types are hornier, have looser standards, or are generally more morally corrupt? Or is it what we all prefer to believe, that creativity makes us sexier? And what about weird sciency-creative hybrids like me - currently my "score" rate is falling on the non-creative side of things, so maybe the nerdy side of me cancels out the poetic sexiness... something I've long suspected, damn...

It's Warm Down South

Been working down in Invercargill this week, and one of my off-duty pleasures was meeting up with the local writers and poets down here. The cold and mostly southern climate breeds famously tough people, and there was much to appreciate about the tenacity of being a writer in the South. (There are, of course, many famous literary names associated in some way with Invercargill.) It was such a pleasure to find like-minded people to swap poetry with, yarn about the business of writing and later, share a beer and dessert at the local watering-hole!