Papyri

[Cover design: Brett Cross / Cover image: Graham Fletcher]

A Clearer View of the Hinterland

Poems & Sequences
1981-2014

by Jack Ross

ISBN 978-0-473-29640-7

Online Notes

Contents:

Some of these poems have appeared in more than one place, sometimes in variant versions. I’ve tried to record, in each case, the first publication of the text reprinted in the body of the collection.

All 33 poems and sequences have been assigned to particular years. The dates in parentheses below each of them do, however, give a more accurate record of the actual period of composition.

Murdo Macleod: The Summer Isles from Loch Broom (2012)

Tanera Beag (1981)

Published:

Tango, “a literary rage”. Auckland University Literary Handbook 1982. Edited by David Eggleton (Auckland: Auckland University Students’ Association, 1982): 14.

Tanera Beag (3/6/81)

Notes:

Tanera Beag (in Gaelic: “little Tanera”) is one of the Summer Isles off the West Coast of Scotland, just north of Ullapool, near where my Gaelic-speaking grandmother, Mary Ross (née Maclean) was born in 1894.

Cover illustration: Tony Ogle / Cover design: Kate Greenaway (2004)

Antipodes (1998)
Midsummer Xmas
Strange Meeting
Morning Swim
Commuter

Published:

Golden Weather: North Shore Writers Past and Present. Poems edited by Jack Ross / Prose edited by Graeme Lay. ISBN 0-908561-96-2 (Auckland: Cape Catley, 2004): 162-63.

Antipodes:
Midsummer Xmas (22/12/97)
Strange Meeting (3/1/98)
Morning Swim (11/1/98)
Commuter (5/1/98)

Notes:

Falaise, in "Morning Swim," is French for a “cliff overlooking the sea”. There doesn’t appear to be a precise English equivalent for this word.

Kirsty Black: Except Once (2012)

Except Once (1998)

Published:

NZ Listener, vol. 174 / 3140 (July 15-21, 2000): 44.

Except Once (17/3/98)

Theresia Liemlienio Marshall, ed.: When the Sea Goes Mad at Night (1999)

from Travel Sonnets (1998)
Reading U. K. Le Guin
Simple
Rental
After Supervielle & Apollinaire

Published:

When the Sea Goes Mad at Night (anthology). Poems by Alison Denham, Robin McConnell, Theresia Liemlienio Marshall, Jade Reidy, Jack Ross, and Apirana Taylor. Edited by Theresia Liemlienio Marshall. ISBN 0-473-06460-X (Birkenhead, Auckland: Christian Gray New Zealand, 1999-2000): 86-100.

Travel Sonnets:
2 – Reading U. K. Le Guin (27/1/98)
5 – Simple (3/2/98)
7 – Rental (8/2/98)
Sonnet (after Supervielle & Apollinaire) (2/98)

Notes:

The novel by Ursula K. Le Guin referred to in the first of these poems is her utopian fantasy The Dispossessed (1982). The words in German are from Rainer Maria Rilke’s “Orpheus. Eurydike. Hermes.” The two French poems sampled from in the last poem (by, respectively, Jules Supervielle and Guillaume Apollinaire) can be found on pp. 139 & 158 of The Penguin Book of French Verse: 4 – The Twentieth Century, ed. Anthony Hartley (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1969).

Leicester Kyle (2000)

A Clearer View of the Hinterland (1998)

Published:

Spin 36 (2000): 51.

A Clearer View Of The Hinterland (7-10/7/98)

Notes:

For more information on the late Rev. Leicester Kyle, please see the introduction to my selection from his posthumous literary remains The Millerton Sequences (Auckland: Atuanui Press, 2014). This is also available online at: http://jackrossopinions.blogspot.co.nz/2013/08/introducing-leicester-kyle-2014.html.

Jack Ross (2005)

God’s Spy (1998)
1 – Cover
2 – Code
3 – Stories
4 – Safe House
5 – Signs
6 – The Opposition
7 – Inside
8 – Blown

Published:

Fourth Birthday Celebration. nzepc (4/3/05). [Available at: http://www.nzepc.auckland.ac.nz/features/birthday/ross.asp]

God's Spy:
1 – Cover (20/2/98)
2 – Code (6/3/98)
3 – Stories (5/3/98)
4 – Safe House (23/12/96)
5 – Signs (27/4/98)
6 – The Opposition (31/4/98)
7 – Inside (31/4/98)
8 – Blown (20/5/98)

Notes:

“It is, before all, to make you see” was Joseph Conrad’s classic recipe for realist fiction, as expounded in the preface to his 1897 novel The Nigger of the ‘Narcissus’.

Bartolomeo Veneto: Lucrezia Borgia (c.1520)

Withdrawal Symptoms (1999)

Published:

NZ Listener, vol. 179 / 3196 (August 11-17, 2001): 62.

Withdrawal Symptoms (26/1/99-24/6/2000)

Notes:

The authors of these imaginary ads in the personal columns are intended to be – respectively – Clytemnestra, Julius Caesar, Lucrezia Borgia and Jack the Ripper, though I suspect this extra layer of meaning may have so far eluded the majority of readers.

Cover image: Graham Fletcher (2008)

Out Being Alienated (1999)
1 – Came here the other night for a sticky
2 – The perfect mixer for the perfect city
i – Viaduct Basin
ii – Whiplash
iii – The Street-Vendor
3 – Be honest
4 – Give me a reason to boogie down
5 – The perpetual time of never coming back

Published:

Orange Roughy: Poems & Stories for Tazey. Edited by Jack Ross & Bronwyn Lloyd. ISBN 978-0-473-13179-1 (Auckland: Pania Press, 2008): 51-55.

Out Being Alienated:
1 – Came here the other night for a sticky (20/5/99)
2 – The perfect mixer for the perfect city
i – Viaduct Basin (20/5/99)
ii – Whiplash (18/6/99)
iii – The Street-Vendor (10/6/99)
3 – Be honest (20/5/99)
4 – Give me a reason to boogie down (22/6/99)
5 – The perpetual time of never coming back (21/6/99)

Notes:

The references in the fourth of these poems are to Boris Pasternak’s wartime book of poems Na Ranikh Poyezdakh [On Early Trains] (1942); Kendrick Smithyman’s Atua Wera (1997); and W. H. Auden’s 1938 poem “Gare du Midi.” Dark Carnival, in the fifth, is the title of Ray Bradbury’s first, 1947, collection of short stories.

Queen Street (2002)

Auckland Girl (1999)

Published:

Spin 34 (1999): 50-51.

Auckland Girl (9/2/99)

Jack Ross: The Britney Suite (2001)

The Britney Suite (2000)
Paul Celan, SCHNEEPART
SNOWPART
Wendy Nu , keith partridge y yo
Paul Celan, ERZFLITTER
ORESPARK
Nouvelle vague
Paul Celan, KALK-KROKUS
CHALK-CROCUS
Wendy Nu, mr darling writes to penthouse forum
Paul Celan, DAS GEDUNKELTE
DARK
It’s always too late …
Paul Celan, BEIDHÄNDIGE
BOTH-HANDED

Published:

The Britney Suite. By Paul Celan, Wendy Nu & Jack Ross (Auckland: Perdrix Press, 2001)

[Paul Celan:] SCHNEEPART, gebäumt, bis zuletzt …(22/1/68)
Snowpart (24/10-30/11/2000)
[Wendy Nu:] keith partridge y yo (6/9-21/10/2000)
[Paul Celan:] ERZFLITTER, tief im … (20/7/68)
Orespark (24/10-30/11/2000)
Nouvelle vague (25/7-26/8-20/10-26/10/2000)
[Paul Celan:] KALK-KROKUS, im … (24/8/68)
Chalk-Crocus (24/10-28/11/2000)
[Wendy Nu:] mr darling writes to penthouse forum (6/9-21/10/2000)
[Paul Celan:] DAS GEDUNKELTE Splitterecho … (5/9/68)
Dark (24/10-28/11/2000)
It’s always too late … (4-16/11/2000)
[Paul Celan:] BEIDHÄNDIGE Frühe … (29/9/69)
Both-Handed (24/10-28/11/2000)

Notes:

All quotations from Britney Spears have been extracted from Marcelle Katz’s interview, “Oops, she did it again …” NZ TV Guide (October 13, 2000) 6-7. The “Cut Above” advertisement was taken from the New Zealand Herald (November 6, 2001) C7. The passages in French in “Nouvelle vague” are quoted from ]ean-Luc Godard, Nouvelle Vague (München: ECM, 1997). They can be translated as follows: “Islam is not a religion of doubt, like ours: there is certainty there.” “Mr Darling,” in the sixth of these poems (attributed to “Wendy Nu”) is intended as a reference to the character in J. M. Barrie’s play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up (1904).

Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918)

After Apollinaire (1999)

Published:

Dear Heart: 150 New Zealand Love Poems. Edited by Paula Green. ISBN 978-1-86979-762-1 (Auckland: Godwit, 2012): 104-5.

After Apollinaire (10/3/99)

Notes:

Il y a des petits ponts épatants
Il y a mon coeur qui bat pour toi
Il y a une femme triste sur la route
Il y a un beau petit cottage dans un jardin
Il y a six soldats qui s’amusent comme des fous …
– Guillaume Apollinaire, “Il y a,” from Poèmes à Lou [Ombre de mon amour] XXXI (1915).

Text from Guillaume Apollinaire, Oeuvres poétiques. Ed. Marcel Adéma & Michel Décaudin. Préface d’André Billy. 1956. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 121 (Paris: Éditions Gallimard, 1966): 423.

Misha Kavka, Jennifer Lawn & Mary Paul, ed.: Gothic NZ: The Darker Side of Kiwi Culture (2006)

from Tiger Country (2001)
Tiger Country
Dumb
Civil War
Disorder and Early Sorrow
[your name here]

Published:

Gothic NZ: The Darker Side of Kiwi Culture, Edited by Misha Kavka, Jennifer Lawn & Mary Paul. ISBN-13 978 1 877372 23 0 (Dunedin: University of Otago Press, 2006): 68-79.

Tiger Country (21 & 28-29/3/02)
Disorder and Early Sorrow (26/6-22/10/01)

Tongue in Your Ear 6 (2002): 5.

Dumb (15/7/97-22/11/98-29/10/01)

The Literature of the Civil War. The Imaginary Museum (9/4/12). [Available at:
http://mairangibay.blogspot.co.nz/2012/04/lilterature-of-civil-war.html]

Civil War (30/1/01)

[your name here]: Life Writing. Edited by Jack Ross. ISBN 0-473-09551-3 (Massey University: School of Social and Cultural Studies, 2003): x.

[your name here] (6-9/12/01)

Notes:

The epigraph to this sequence is quoted from the following passage:

some Zen masters, speaking with their customary earthy directness, heaped scorn on Zen scriptures, masters, and images. One of them warmed himself with a statue of Buddha he had set afire. Another said, starkly, that the Buddha was a barbarian turd and sainthood an empty name.

– Ben-Ami Scharfstein, “Introduction.” In Yoel Hoffmann. The Sound of The One Hand: 281 Zen Koans with Answers. 1975 (St Albans, Herts: Paladin, 1977): 10.

Notes on the poem “Disorder and Early Sorrow” can be found in Paula Green & Harry Ricketts, 99 Ways into New Zealand Poetry (Auckland: Vintage, 2010): 364-66.

Salvatore Quasimodo (1901-1968)

Quasimodo’s Last Poem (2000)

Published:

Love, War and Last Things. nzepc (18/4/09). [Available at:
http://www.nzepc.auckland.ac.nz/features/florence/ross09.asp]

Quasimodo’s Last Poem (7/9/99-18/2/2000)

Notes:

La mia ombra è su un altro muro
d’ospedale. Ho fiori e di notte
invito i pioppi e i platani del parco,
alberi di foglie cadute, non gialle,
quasi bianche. …
– Salvatore Quasimodo, “Ho fiori e di notte invito i pioppi" (Ospedale di Sesto S. Giovanni novembre 1965).

Text from Salvatore Quasimodo, Tutte le Poesie. Ed. Gilberto Finzi. Grandi Classici. 1995 (Milano: Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 2001): 259.

Raewyn Alexander, ed.: Summer Book from Eye Street (2007)

Seven Levels of the Waterfall (2002)
Letter (to Lien Stevens)
Trekking
I – Hill Country
In the Opium Museum
II – Golden Triangle
On the Frontier
III – Air-con Bus
The Débâcle
IV – Ayutthaya
To the River Kwai
V – Rafthouse
Erawan
VI – Erewhon
The Massage Parlour
VII – Bangkok

Published:

Summer Book from Eye Street. Edited by Rewyn Alexander. ISBN 0254-0193 (Auckland: Bright Communications, 2005): 1-8.

Seven Levels of the Waterfall
I – Hill Country
Ban Rim Lai (6/1/02)
Chiang Rai (6/1/02)
II – Golden Triangle
Mekong Sunset (7/1/02)
Lao-Burmese Border (7/1/02)
III – Air-con Bus
Chris (8/1/02)
Daniella (8/1/02)
IV – Ayutthaya
Victory Chedi of Naresuan the Great (9/1/02)
The Squirrel (9/1/02)
V – Rafthouse
Wat Tam Sua (10/1/02)
Khun Phen (10/1/02)
VI – Erawan
No Fear (11/1/02)
‘Show a little compassion, guys’ (11/1/02)
VII – Bangkok
The Golden Mountain (12/1/02)
Eurotrash (12/1/02)

Alan Brunton (1946-2002)

Stone Pine Lavender (2002)

Published:

When You Give so Much: Recollections of Alan Brunton. nzepc (6/12/02). [Available at: http://www.nzepc.auckland.ac.nz/authors/brunton/recollections/stone.asp]

Stone Pine Lavender (15/12-19/12/2000)

Notes:

The italicised words in stanza 8 of this poem are taken from W. H. Auden’s “In Memory of W. B. Yeats” (1939).

Cover design: Dean Havard (2009)

The Return of the Vanishing New Zealander (2003)
I ♥ NZ
NZ Golf (and English) Academy
Boi-Boi on Karaoke
Language School Picnic
Journey to the West
Index
Mysteries: A Christmas Poem
In the Days of The Lord of the Rings
A Question of Faith
Bonfire Gothic

Published:

The Return of the Vanishing New Zealander. By Jack Ross. ISBN 978-0-9864507-6-1 (Dunedin: Kilmog Books, 2009)

I ♥ NZ (11/2/99)
NZ Golf (and English) Academy (31/12/98)
Boi-Boi on Karaoke (29/12/98)
Language School Picnic (28/3/98)
Journey to the West
1 – Evening (18/6-20/9/98)
2 – Clouds (18/6-9/9/98)
3 – Countdown (18/6-9/9/98)
Index (27/12/01- 4/3/02)
Mysteries: A Christmas Poem
The stones have eyes …. (6/10-29/11/03)
Brought down … (10-29/11/03)
There is no same word … (2/9-29/11/03)
In the Days of The Lord of the Rings (20-27/11/02)
A Question of Faith (22-26/3/03)
Bonfire Gothic
1 – Dogshit at a distance (12/1-5/2/03)
2 – Diaphanous sails (30/1-5/2/03)

Alexandra David-Néel (1886)

Samsara – Breaking through (2003)

Published:

evasion 2.1 (2003): 21.

Samsara – Breaking through (10-23/1/03)

Notes:

A tulpa is an embodied thought-form, as described in Alexandra David-Néel’s Magic and Mystery in Tibet (1931).

Cover design: Bronwyn Lloyd (2006)

Love in Wartime (2003)
Carl sniffed
1 – Porphyry skyline
2 – Rhinoceros
3 – Entering the world again
SEX is natural
4 – Bright Flowers
5 – You just don’t have the sympathy
6 – Stops when you watch it

Published:

Love in Wartime. By Jack Ross (Wellington: Pania Press, 2007)

Carl sniffed (12/1-8/3/03)
1 – Porphyry skyline (26/2-1/3/03)
2 – Rhinoceros (13/2-1/3/03)
3 – Entering the world again (11/1-2/3/03)
SEX is natural (8-10/3/03)
4 – Bright Flowers (10-11/3/03)
5 – You just don’t have the sympathy (10/2-1/3/03)
6 – Stops when you watch it (17/8/02-6/3/03)

Notes:

The epigraph to this sequence, from Tina Shaw’s “Street Scene,” is taken from An Affair of the Heart: A Celebration of Frank Sargeson’s Centenary, edited by Graeme Lay and Stephen Stratford (Auckland: Cape Catley, 2003) 141-45.

Paula Green, ed.: Dear Heart: 150 New Zealand Love Poems (2012)

The Miracle (2006)

Published:

Dear Heart: 150 New Zealand Love Poems. Edited by Paula Green. ISBN 978-1-86979-762-1 (Auckland: Godwit, 2012): 55.

The Miracle (4-13/8/06)

René Char (1907-1988)

Three Sisters (after René Char) (2004)
blue pharos love
1 – in the urn of the second
2 – twosies
3 – shoulder your children

Published:

Muses (for Joanna Margaret Paul). brief 32 (2005): 95-98.

Three Sisters (with David Howard) (9-12/4/04)

Notes:

Mon amour à la robe de phare bleue,
Je baise la fièvre de ton visage
Où couche la lumière qui jouit en secret. …
– René Char, “Les Trois Soeurs,” from Fureur et mystère : Poèmes 1938-44 (1948).

Translated by David Howard & Jack Ross [literal version by Jack Ross; sections i & 1 drafted by David Howard, revised by Jack Ross; sections 2 & 3 by Jack Ross].

America's Next Top Model: Cycle 1 (2003)

Zen and the Art of America’s Next Top Model (2006)

Published:

OBAN 06 Online Poetry Anthology. nzepc (28/4/06). [Available at: http://www.nzepc.auckland.ac.nz/features/oban06/ross.asp]

Zen and the Art of America’s Next Top Model (17-24/2/06)

Raewyn Alexander, ed.: Eye Street Book (2012)

from Roadworks: Auckland Geography (2006)
O Canada!
Tentacles of Destruction
Asbestos Hands of Dr. J.
DEATH & BEYOND
Refrigerium
Birkenhead
A Sunday Walk
This DVD contains everything you ever wanted to know …
Newmarket
Unsuccessful Applicant for Neighbourhood Watch
Coromandel
Blinds

Published:

Eye Street Book: Poems by Jack Ross, Raewyn Alexander, Rosetta Allan, Ila Selwyn, Alice Hooton, Jacqueline Crompton Ottaway & Lee Dowrick. Edited by Raewyn Alexander. ISBN 978-0-473-20575-1 (Auckland: Bright Communications, 2012): 7-14.

Roadworks: City Geography
Tentacles of Destruction (14 & 20-27/5/04)

Poetry NZ 40 (2010): 76-81.

The Asbestos Hands of Dr. J. (7/10/04-26/1/06)
This DVD contains everything … (13-15/9/05)
Unsuccessful Applicant … (29/9/05)

Love, War and Last Things. nzepc (18/4/09). [Available at:
http://www.nzepc.auckland.ac.nz/features/florence/ross01.asp]

Refrigerium (20-22/1/06)

Roadworks: Auckland Geography. The Imaginary Museum (14-16/6/06) [Available at: http://mairangibay.blogspot.com/2006/06/place-axis.html]

O Canada! (30-31/7/03)
DEATH & BEYOND (2-5/6/03)
Birkenhead (21-22/11/03)
A Sunday Walk (13-31/7/03)
Newmarket (30/6-22/7/03)
Coromandel (26-28/7/03)
Blinds (28/2-11/3/06)

Siobhan Harvey, ed.: Our Own Kind: 100 New Zealand Poems about Animals (2009)

Zero at the Bone (2008)

Published:

Our Own Kind: 100 New Zealand Poems about Animals. Edited by Siobhan Harvey. ISBN 978 1 86962 160 5 (Auckland: Godwit, 2009): 73-74.

Zero at the Bone (12-15/3/08)

Notes:

Zero is the name of our cat. The reference in the title is to Emily Dickinson’s poem “A narrow fellow in the grass.”

Cover design: Michael Steven

Papyri (2007)
When you walked in …
The Villa of the Papyri
Sappho to Anaktoria
Recipe for Making a Dadaist Poem
Ode to Aphrodite
Life among the Surrealists
Atthis
Mnasidika
Fragments (1-7)
To a girl who doesn’t care for poetry
Juicy Root
Virgin
Sappho’s Epithalamion

Published:

Papyri: Love Poems & Fragments from Sappho & Elsewhere. By Jack Ross. ISBN 978-0-473-12397-0 (Auckland: Soapbox Press, 2007):

When you walked in … (13/1-27/2/07)
Sappho to Anaktoria (4/8-2/10/06)
Ode to Aphrodite (4/2-28/2/07)
Atthis (13/1-9/2/07)
Mnasidika (13/1-11/2/07)
Fragments (1) (22/2/07)
I love magnificence … (13/1-22/2/07)
Dying is bad … (4/8/06-22/2/07)
The Moon’s set … (13/1-22/2/07)
Fragments (2) (24/2/07)
This pretty baby is mine … (13/1-24/2/07)
– Mum, I can’t thread … (13/1-24/2/07)
Last night you slept on the breast … (13/1-24/2/07)
We love to hear … (24/2/07)
To a girl who doesn’t care for poetry (13/1-12/2/07)
Juicy Root (13/1-27/2/07)
Virgin (13/1-27/2/07)
Sappho’s Epithalamion (13/1-10/3/07)

Papyri: Love Poems & Fragments from Sappho & Elsewhere. By Jack Ross. Signed Gift Edition of 20 Copies (Auckland: Pania Press, 2007):

The Villa of the Papyri (30/3-2/4/07)
Recipe for Making a Dadaist Poem (4/2/07)
Life among the Surrealists (21-26/11/06; 4/2/07)

Notes:

These versions after Sappho have been greatly assisted by the literal prose translations included in Mario Meunier’s Sappho, Anacréon et Anacréontiques (Paris: Editions Bernard Grasset, 1932):

Sappho to Anaktoria [Meunier, 70-71]

Ode to Aphrodite [57-58]

Atthis [66-67]

Mnasidika [68-69]

Fragments [77c, 77b, 79, 76b, 75, 83, 87-88]

To a girl who doesn’t care for poetry [74]

Juicy Root [93]

Virgin [95]

Sappho’s Epithalamion [91-92]

“Recipe for Making a Dadaist Poem” is quoted from Mark Polizzotti, Revolution of the Mind: The Life of André Breton (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1995) 145, as is the following passage in “Life among the Surrealists”:

In August [1922], René Crevel, twenty-two years old and handsome as a god, had been vacationing with his family on a Norman beach when a young girl fell at his feet and begged him to press geraniums between her breasts. That evening Crevel, the girl, her mother, and an old woman named Madame Dante had sat around a table and held a séance. Within minutes Crevel had fallen into a deep sleep, during which (as the women told him afterwards) he had uttered remarkable statements. But the experiments proceeded no further, as Crevel, still in uniform, had had to return to barracks the next morning. [178]

Marco Sonzogni, ed.: Corno Inglese (2009)

Eel (after Montale) (2008)

Published:

Corno inglese: An anthology of Eugenio Montale's poetry in English translation. Edited by Marco Sonzogni. ISBN-13: 978-88-7536-203-4 (Novi Ligure: Edizioni Joker, 2009): 218-19.

Eel (after Montale) (25-29/4/08)

Notes:

L’anguilla, la sirena
dei mari freddi che lascia il Baltico
per giungere ai nostri mari …
– Eugenio Montale, “L’Anguilla,” from La bufera e altro (1956).”.

Text from Eugenio Montale, Tutte le Poesie. Ed. Gilberto Finzi. Grandi Classici. 1995 (Milano: Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 2001): 259.

Teryl-Leigh: Surprise

from 31 Days (2009)
April Fool’s Day
Hiding the Lunch
“The archaeologist of the present day”
Three fits
New Zealand’s Next Top Model Speaks
Substitutes only need apply
The Assassination Weapon
The Darkness
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
Mayday

Published:

All Together Now: A Digital Bridge. nzepc (24/8/10). [Available at: http://www.nzepc.auckland.ac.nz/features/home&away/ross-sydney.asp]

April Fool’s Day (1/4-18/6/09)
“The archaeologist of the present day” (5/4-18/6//09)
Three fits (6/4-16/7/10)
Substitutes only need apply (12/4-18/6/09)

The Argo & The Wahine. By Jack Ross & Bronwyn Lloyd (Auckland: Pania Press, 2009)

Hiding the Lunch (2/4-6/8/09)
The Darkness (23/4-18/6/09)
Mayday (1/5-18/6/09)

Massey University: Defining NZ (Summer 2009/10): 7.

New Zealand’s Next Top Model Speaks (11/4-18/6/09)

brief 38 (2009): 46-48.

The Assassination Weapon (22/4-18/6/09)

brief 40 (2010): 9-13.

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (24/4-15/11/09)

Notes:

The poem "Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz" samples from a passage in her “Respuesta a Sor Filotea de la Cruz.” The complete text of this essay can be found in Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Obras Completas. 1951-1957. Prólogo de Francisco Monterde. 1969. “Colección Sepan Cuantos …”, 100 (Ciudad de México: Editorial Porrúa, S. A., 1977): 827-48 [837-38].

Leon Wolff: In Flanders Fields (1958)

Last Conference before Passchendaele (2009)

Published:

Poetry NZ 47 (2013): 93-103.

Last Conference before Passchendaele (24/12/09-8/2/10)

Notes:

Most of the details in this poem were provided by Ian Wolff’s classic account of Passchendaele: In Flanders Fields: The 1917 Campaign (1958).

Allen Curnow and friends (1948)

The Jay Poems (2012)
Jay & the Mail-Order Bride
Jay as Line-Manager
Jay & the Great Storm
Jay Addresses the Troops
Jay & The Economics of Happiness
Jay on a Friday Night
Jay’s Fear of Retirement
Jay at the Pataphysics Conference
Jay Finds a ’40s Photograph
Jay on Fate
Jay at the Glowworm Caves
Jay Checks His Father into a Home
Jay Gets His Hair Cut at the Mall

Published:

from The Jay Poems. brief 47 – The Mid City Arcade Project (2013): 32-36.

Jay & The Economics of Happiness (5-25/3/12)
Jay on a Friday Night (28/3-25/4/12)
Jay’s Fear of Retirement (29/3-25/4/12)
Jay at the Pataphysics Conference (29/3-22/4/12)

Poetry on Posters Programme. Ed. Kelly Wilson & Iain Dalziel. Auckland: Phantom Billstickers, 2014.

Jay Checks His Father into a Home (11/12/12-10/1/13)

[unpublished]:

Jay & the Mail-Order Bride (25/1-3/2/12)
Jay as Line-Manager (2/11/11-3/2/12)
Jay & the Great Storm (2-3/2/12)
Jay Addresses the Troops (16-25/3/12)
Jay Finds a ’40s Photograph (21-29/9/12)
Jay on Fate (11/12/12-17/1/13)
Jay at the Glowworm Caves (11/12/12-10/1/13)
Jay Gets His Hair Cut at the Mall (13/12/12-10/1/13)

Graham Fletcher: "Untitled", from Lounge Room Tribalism (2009-10)

Lounge Room Tribalism (2011)

Published:

Graham Fletcher. Sugar Loaf Waka. Essay by Bronwyn Lloyd. Melanie Rogers Gallery: 3-27 July 2013 (Auckland: Pania Press, 2013): 8.

Lounge Room Tribalism (21/1-8/2/11)

Xu Yuan Zhong: Golden Treasury of Chinese Lyrics (1990)

from Jueju (2013)
Transcultural Imaginaries
Make-Up
On City Streets
40 Bogan Anthems
Inferno 13
Thinking of My Father

[unpublished]:

Transcultural Imaginaries (for Yang Lian) (18-23/6/13)
Make-Up (after Wen Tingyun) (6/9-1/10/13)
On City Streets (after Wang Anshi) (6/9-30/10/13)
40 Bogan Anthems (after Axl Rose) (24/8-5/9/13)
Inferno 13 (after Dante Alighieri) (21/8-1/10/13)
Thinking of My Father (after Liu Ke Zhang) (6/9-17/10/13)

Notes:

The second, third, and sixth poems in this sequence are indebted to the rhymed translations with facing Chinese originals provided by Xu Yuan Zhong in his Golden Treasury of Chinese Lyrics (Beijing: Peking University Press, 1990).

Ponsonby (1960s)

12-12-12 (after Dante, Inferno 1: ll. 1-30) (2012)

Published:

Xmas Poem. The Imaginary Museum (18/12/12). [Available at: http://mairangibay.blogspot.co.nz/2012/12/xmas-poem.html]

12-12-12 (after Dante, Inferno 1: ll. 1-30) (11-18/12/12)

Maurice Maeterlinck: The Unknown Guest (1914)

The Other Side (2013)
1914 – The Elberfeld Horses
1966 – The Unknown Guest
2013 – Rare and Obscure

[unpublished]:

The Other Side (21-29/3/13)
1914 – The Elberfeld Horses (21-23/3/13)
1966 – The Unknown Guest (21-24/3/13)
2013 – Rare and Obscure (21-24/3/13)

Notes:

A more extensive account of the Elberfeld horses can be found on pp. 181-297 of Maurice Maeterlinck’s The Unknown Guest, trans. Alexander Teixeira de Mattos (London: Methuen, 1914). The quotation in italics in the second poem in the sequence comes from Bishop James A. Pike’s 1969 account of his own “experiences with psychic phenomena,” The Other Side (London: Abacus, 1975). I bought both books in the bookshop described in the third poem.

Fatal cliff fall not suspicious

Howard (2014)

Published:

From A Clearer View of the Hinterland by Jack Ross. HeadworX website (8/9/14). [Available at: http://headworx.eyesis.co.nz/poetry/clearer_sample]

Howard (5-6/1/14)

Akaroa Harbour

Leaving Town (2013)

Published:

brief 51 – the outer link (2014): 5.

Leaving Town (10-12/12/13)

blurb

Graham Fletcher: "The New Order"
[from King of the Wood (2002)]

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