TUESDAY POEM | PRECIS by CB

Lemons the size of melons   |  Santa Eulalia des Riu, Ibiza, Baleriac Islands 2011

                               PRéCIS

                               This has been a week for citrus 

                               zest and candles, yellow and green - 

                               I see a courtyard there

                               and a lemon tree whose unbound feet

                               turn stones to moss, a random toss

                               of earth incubating delphiniums 

                               for summer.  

                               CB

This week's editor on the TP hub is Keith Westwater

with Planchette 

by fellow New Zealander James Norcliffe.

You won't want to miss this one (think rhythm, music and 'qwerty') -   

                               "at night the rats

                                are bigger than rats

                                they race back and forth

                                like typewriters. . . "

And speaking of typewriters, today I came across a California-based artist - Jeremy Mayer  - who creates intricate, anatomically-convincing and rather spectacular sculptures out of nothing but old typewriter parts. No glue, screws, nails or any fixings whatsoever aside from those integral to the typewriters. The article I read today introduced his newest work - swallows. Eerily beautiful mechanical birds. With their sharply-determined beaks, soft typewriter key eyes and articulated wings they are imbued with an air of expectancy and inquisitiveness as if poised - and designed - for flight. You can check out his birds here and more of his work on his website.

James's poem with its cast of rats prompts me to direct you to a rat of a different calibre. An unconventional, 'dance-to-your-own-tune' breed of rat. Ratty is PR 'person', office artiste and right-hand assistant to Penelope Todd of Rosa Mira Books. He is also the thoroughly lovable and eccentric partner to exotic Argentian fairy armadillo, Lily-the-Pink and father to three endearing ratadillos. Hop over to the Rosa Mira blog to meet them and to read a fine conversation between Penelope and Australia-based New Zealander Martin Edmond whose essay Winged Sandals is due out from RMB soon. 

It won't be long till Penelope posts an interview with Melissa Green in preparation for the release of Melissa's exceptionally delicate and powerful memoir, The Linen Way. Yay.

Ratty - PR for Rosa Mira Books (brought to life by writer, artist and e-publisher Penelope Todd)

TUESDAY POEM | Albatross by Penelope Todd

                                 LEARNING FROM THE BIRDS

                          Albatross

                                This parent does not fuss:

                                six days at sea;

                                six minutes now suffice

                                to deliver her burden

                                to the child that waddles over,

                                claps and daddles beak at beak —
                                   

                                up comes the mess of squid

                                scooped from the black

                                a thousand miles off.

                                New-fledged, the young must jettison

                                the undigested stuff of infancy:

                                bones and fins, the beaks of octopi.

                                How wings grow slick

                                and open for that years-long

                                maiden flight no parent can impart

                                nor how to wrest eight writhing limbs

                                from the open sea at night.

                          Penelope Todd 

                                    

I was happy to be in the audience a couple of Wednesdays ago when Penelope read her poem Albatross. Vegan cafe Circadian Rhythm hosts a monthly poetry gathering here in Dunedin and we were there to listen and read. I barely gave Penelope time to sit down after her turn at the mic before asking if I could please post her poem here - and soon? Thank you, Pen. 

* Wee 'Albatross Aside'. . . 

In Dunedin, when the first adult Royal Albatross returns to land after spending many months at sea - and, too, when the first albatross chick hatches - the city's cathedrals bells ring out in celebration.    

*

This week's editor on the Tuesday Poem hub is Helen McKinlay

with Lines for a New Year 

by iconic NZ poet Sam Hunt.

Sam generously offered up a second - unpublished - poem for readers, titled Tell Me What 

                                  "Tell me what I don't know -

                                   not what I know now

                                   or what I'll know tomorrow. . . "

The end of the year is fast approaching. . . There will be one more Tuesday Poem posted on the hub next week, after which we will all take a break, re-congregating towards the end of January 2013. (2013! Pinch me?) xo