Tesseract (2026)

Cover design: Scarlett Robinson-Kean (2026)

Tesseract. Illustrated by Scarlett Robinson-Kean. ISBN 978-0-473-78266-5. Auckland: Paper Table, 2026. 110 pp.

Robert A. Heinlein: “– And he Built a Crooked House –.”

“What's a tesseract?”
“Didn't you go to school? A tesseract is a hypercube, a square figure with four dimensions to it, like a cube has three, and a square has two. Here, I'll show you …”

– Robert Heinlein, “– And he Built a Crooked House –.” Astounding Science Fiction (1941)

Robert A. Heinlein: “– And he Built a Crooked House –.”

Contents:

1. No time but the present (24/5-7/10/22)


2. Mutual Forgiveness (12/11/22-27/5/23)
3. Soft (22/9/22-5/7/23)
4. The key (3/12/22-27/5/23)
5. My partner (10/9/22-14/3/24)
6. Pick-ups (19/10/22-23/2/24)
7. The cat’s ritual (5/11/22-9/5/23)
8. The Ballad of the Great Storm (23/11/22-5/7/23)
9. Heavy Rescue 401 (5/12/22-8/3/24)
10. Our backyard (13/9/22-3/2/24)
11. Big pink (26/10/22-11/7/2023)
12. Rain (30/10/22-27/2/24)
13. The Great Impostor (26/9/22-13/2/24)
14. Under the knife (10/11/22-3/3/24)
15. An evening’s viewing (28/11/22-6/3/24)
16. Power cut (27/11/22-27/5/23)
17. It was so and not so (19/6/24)
18. Spartacus (19/9/22-2/5/23)


19. Chocolate Weetbix (6-7/4/22)


20. Nice (20/9/22-7/2/24)
21. So does this mean World War III? (18/11/22-11/7/2023)
22. Insignificance (30/9/22-15/2/24)
23. When people are anxious (14/11/22-11/7/2023)
24. Gallowglass (6/9/22-28/1/24)
25. India twenty years ago (29/9/22-14/2/24)
26. The Sixties (23/10/22-24/2/24)
27. Get out of the way! (29/10/22-26/2/24)
28. Wolf (21/9/22-5/7/23)
29. Strangers on a train (12/10/22-20/2/24)
30. From Russia with Love (18/10/22-22/2/24)
31. The Basketballathon (20/2/22-15/10/23)
32. Towards the end (24/10/22-25/2/24)
33. I miss it sometimes (15/11/22-11/7/2023)
34. The inverse ninja law (17/11/22-11/7/2023)
35. Bronwyn (8/12/22-5/7/23)
36. My mother’s rose bushes (18/9/22-2/4/23)


37. Time in Poetry (27-28/4/22)


38. Zealandia (11/9/22-2/2/24)
39. Scurvy Grass (6/2-22/7/21)
40. Coming in from the cold (25/10/22-11/7/2023)
41. All that you love will be carried away (17/9/22-7/2/24)
42. Rear Window (8/10/22-17/2/24)
43. Kimono (1/10/22-15/2/24)
44. Is time travel possible? (25/9/22-12/2/24)
45. Pizzagate (14/10/22-20/2/24)
46. Coming Forth by Day (15/10/22-21/2/24)
47. Déjà vu all over again (3/11/22-28/2/24)
48. In my dream last night (21/10/22-5/7/23)
49. The House on the Strand (3/10/22-16/2/24)
50. Weather (17/10/22-22/2/24)
51. Living history (4/12/22-8/3/24)
52. Prisoners of K. Rd. (14/9/22-3/2/24)
53. Last days (20/11/22-4/3/24)
54. Catullus 101 (12/9/22-28/5/23)


55. No wars but in words (24-25/5/22)


56. Why do you write? (2/11/22-28/2/24)
57. Gaslighting (29/11/22-5/7/23)
58. Crash (26/11/22-5/3/24)
59. You need to get a job (28/10/22-26/2/24)
60. The Bard (22/10/22-24/2/24)
61. The usual suspects (5/10/22-16/2/24)
62. I used to quote (16/11/22-11/7/2023)
63. Not everything is an anecdote (20/10/22-23/2/24)
64. Mnemonics (31/10/22-8/5/23)
65. Houseboat Days (22/11/22-12/7/2023)
66. Emotionally labile (13/10/22-4/1/23)
67. The Killing Floor (7/12/22-5/7/23)
68. Experimental (9/12/22-8/2/24)
69. Frack away (4/11/22-29/2/24)
70. Bronwyn asked me (25/11/22-5/7/23)
71. Catfish or cats? (6/12/22-27/5/23)
72. Just Like the Others (27-28/10/20)

hypercube

•

Blurb:

Each of us is made up of stories – family stories, work stories, relationship stories – even stories about trying to buy a revolving bookcase in Paeroa … Stories, too, about the country and the world we live in.

If you put them all together, the lines begin to connect up into the shape of a life: not a simple geometric figure, but the outline of a particular location in spacetime – a line, then a square, then a cube, then finally a four-dimensional hypercube, a tesseract.

An earlier version of this, Jack Ross’s latest poetry collection, was longlisted for the Kathleen Grattan award in 2025. He’s happy to present it here with a book design and lively illustrations by 2025 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Springboard recipient, Scarlett Robinson-Kean.

'What makes this book resonate so deeply with me is movement. Physical and emotional movement. Not on a grand over-the-top flare of sentimentality but in small measured steps that favour contiguity. I relish the shift between what is easily witnessed in the everyday and what is much harder to fathom, what is retrieved in glimmers and shards across time. it is a collection that warrants a prolonged sojourn. Glorious.'

- Paula Green on Jack’s The Oceanic Feeling (2021)

•

Jack Ross is the author of six poetry collections, four novels, and five books of short fiction, most recently Haunts (2024). He edited Poetry New Zealand / Aotearoa from 2014-2020, along with many other books, anthologies, and literary journals over the years.

He and his wife, crafter and art-writer Bronwyn Lloyd, share their house in Mairangi Bay with a regal three-legged cat named Mila.

Sources & Acknowledgments:

Thanks, above all, to Bronwyn Lloyd for your invaluable advice throughout the process – and also for giving me permission to take your name in vain in so many of the poems.

Thanks, too, to my brilliant illustrator and book designer Scarlett Robinson-Kean. This book would be a very different thing without your vivid sense of colour and form.

Many of the pieces included here have been previously published. Thanks to the editors and publishers of all those anthologies, journals, and websites for permission to reproduce them here. For further details, please visit https://ovidius-naso.blogspot.com/2026/03/notes-to-tesseract.html.

Lisa Baudry: Paper Table logo (2017)

Abstract:

Many of the 72 poems here have been published previously in periodicals or online. A complete list of these is available here. The book also features four artworks by New Zealand graphic novelist and illustrator Scarlett Robinson-Kean, painted specifically for this project.

The poems, too, are grouped into four sections. The first, 'No time but the present', gives an overview of my basic social and family setting.

The second, 'Chocolate Weetbix', goes back further in time. There are stories here about travels abroad and around New Zealand, and the effect they've had on me.

The third, 'Time in Poetry', expands the lens further. There are poems here about geological deep time, as well as other social and political implications of time.

The book concludes with a final section called 'No wars but in words.' Here I think more specifically about the reach of poetry and writing in general: the insights it offers us, and the limitations on its power.

The whole, I hope, adds up to a kind of 'representative life' - told, inevitably, by the person living it, since much of the information included here is privileged. By analogy, though, I hope it invites collaboration and comparison from the people who read it.

Lisa Baudry: Paper Table logo (2017)

Available:

Paper Table
Attn: Bronwyn Lloyd
6 Hastings Rd
Mairangi Bay
Auckland 0630

RRP: $NZ 40.00 (+ $12 postage)

Scarlett Robinson-Kean: They have arrived! (2/6/2026)

Reviews & Comments:

Lynley Edmeades, ed.: Landfall Tauraka 250 (Spring 2025)



1. Mel Stevens, email (October 13, 2025):
   

   
   Kia ora Jack
   
   I’m writing with thanks for submitting your manuscript for the 2025 Kathleen Grattan Poetry Award. I’m pleased to let you know that your work was longlisted this year – warm congratulations! It’s a wonderful achievement to have your manuscript recognised among such a strong and diverse field of entries.
   
   The winner will be announced later this week, along with details of the forthcoming Landfall Tauraka 250 issue, which will carry the judge’s report.
   
   Thank you again for sharing your work with us and for contributing to this year’s competition. We wish you all the very best for your ongoing writing.
   
   Ngā mihi nui,
   
   Mel Stevens
   Landfall Tauraka
   Otago University Press

•

Dawn Chorus (2026)

cover & text design: Béatrice Carlson & Jack Ross

Dawn Chorus: A Recycled Poem from the Ancient Greek Tebtunis Papyri. Trans. Salvatore Quasimodo & Jack Ross. Artwork by Béatrice Carlson. “Where We Meet: Four Artists. Four Poets. Four Collaborations”. Curated by Pippa Mothersole. Angela Morton Room, Aug 23-Sep 27. Auckland: Takapuna Library, 2026. 8 pp.

Contents:

Salvatore Quasimodo:

Canto Mattutino
E le docili api ...

Jack Ross:

Morning Song
Dawn Chorus
And the hardworking bees ...
Notes & Sources

Béatrice Carlson:

Dawn Chorus Artwork

Images:

Links:

The Imaginary Museum

Papyri

Angela Morton Room

•

The Oceanic Feeling (2021)

Cover image: Katharina Jaeger (by courtesy of the artist) /
Cover design: William Bardebes (2020)

The Oceanic Feeling. Drawings by Katharina Jaeger. Afterword by Bronwyn Lloyd. ISBN 978-0-473-55801-7. Auckland: Salt & Greyboy Press, 2021. 72 pp.

Contents:

1. The Oceanic Feeling (7/1-18/10/17)

Family Plot


2. Lone pine (14/1-5/12/14)
3. Family plot (26/6-12/8/15)
4. When you’re the only one (30/9-19/11/17)
5. Oh br/other! (6/1/16-13/7/17)
6. This morning Sylvie (16/1/16-7/5/17)
7. Zero is lying down today (18/1/16-22/10/17)
8. What to do till the sentinels come (11-23/4/18)
9. Rituals (9/1/16-7/5/17)
10. My Uncle Tommy (15-23/4/18)
11. 1942 (17/9-4/12/16)
12. Very superstitious (4/1-21/8/16)
13. Playing the long game (29/1-29/10/16)
14. Are Kiwi women (30/1-29/10/16)
15. Rather a shock (15/1/16-7/5/17)
16. Family skeletons (10/1/16-7/5/17)
17. Self-analysis (11/1/16-7/5/17)
18. Checking into Facebook (31/1-5/12/16)
19. A borrowed life (30/9-2/10/17)
20. Psych 101 (7/1/16-4/1/17)
21. What do you want? (8/9-13/10/18)

Ice Road Trucker


22. Ice Road Trucker (7/2-30/3/15)
23. Two Fords (17/7-12/8/15)
24. Stranded Polar Bear (21/11-14/12/19)
25. Indexing Poetry NZ (5/1-29/8/16)
26. Turning at the doorstep (21/1/16-19/10/17)
27. The perils of public art (8/1/16-7/5/17)
28. Communications committee (14/1-4/12/16)
29. Oral exam, 1990 (1/1-21/8/16)
30. Everything ages too fast (27/1/16-7/5/17)
31. Restructuring (20/2-12/3/20)
32. Kissing the Blarney Stone (23/4-29/8/16)
33. Skins, 1981 (22/2-14/4/19)
34. Snorkelling the Great Barrier Reef (17-19/11/17)
35. Mark (21/6-12/8/15)
36. Reindeer games (27/12/17)
37. The Mysterious Island (18-26/4/15)
38. Antigone (29/5/14; 18/4-13/6/15)
39. Shorts:
    • Birds of Passage (12/11/14-7/2/15)
    • Auckland Anthem (30/3-15/4/12)
    • Hunting in Palmerston (after Su Shi) (6/9-17/10/13)

Translations


40. On Early Trains (after Boris Pasternak) (26/1-7/2/15)
41. Bangalore 2002 (after Boris Pasternak) (30/12/14-7/2/15)
42. 1913 (after Apollinaire) (21/6-12/8/15)

Blurb:

Jack Ross’s latest collection combines poems about ‘families – and how to survive them’ (in John Cleese’s phrase) with darkly humorous reflections on Academia and various other aspects of modern life. It concludes with some translations from Boris Pasternak and Guillaume Apollinaire.

The book also includes a suite of drawings by Swiss-New Zealand Artist Katharina Jaeger, ably explicated in an Afterword by Art Writer Bronwyn Lloyd.

'… picture yourself on a Gold Coast beach, the wind idly leafing through the pages of a much-annotated copy of Benjamin’s Arcades Project on your lap; as ‘Baudelaire’ flashes by in your peripheral vision, you disinterestedly observe a sleek conferential shark feeding – though far from frenziedly – on a smorgasbord of swimmers, whose names end with unstressed vowels and whose togs are at least a size too small. The water is the colour of an $8 bottle of rosé. I find reading Ross – to borrow his victims’ parlance – kind of like that.'

- Robert McLean, Landfall Review Online

•

Born in Zurich in 1964, Katharina Jaeger studied art at Kunstgewerbeschule Zurich before emigrating to New Zealand in 1986. She has a Bachelor of Design from Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology (now Ara Institute of Canterbury), where she currently teaches in the Visual Arts Programme. Katharina has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally for over two decades. She was a finalist for the Parkin Drawing Prize in 2017 and her most recent solo exhibition, Billow, was held at PG Gallery 192 in September 2019.

Bronwyn Lloyd is a freelance art writer and textile artist who lives in Mairangi Bay. She completed a PhD on Rita Angus’s Goddess paintings at the University of Auckland in 2010. Since 1999 Bronwyn has been publishing articles and catalogue essays on New Zealand painting, applied art and design, as well as fiction: her first book of short stories, The Second Location, was published in 2011 by Titus Books. Her series of needlepoint amulets, Under the Protection, was exhibited at Masterworks Gallery in November 2020.

Jack Ross has published five poetry collections, three novels, three novellas, and three books of short fiction, most recently Ghost Stories (2019). He was managing editor of Poetry New Zealand from 2014-2019, and has edited numerous other books, anthologies, and literary journals. He lives in Mairangi Bay on Auckland’s North Shore and teaches creative writing at Massey University. You can find further information on his blog, The Imaginary Museum, at http://mairangibay.blogspot.com/.

Sources & Acknowledgments:

Warmest thanks to publishers (and designers) William Bardebes and Emma Smith, of Salt & Greyboy Press.

I’d also like to thank Katharina Jaeger for her generosity in allowing me to use some of the beautiful ink on paper drawings from her ‘Prunings’ sequence. Also Tony Bond for his fine photographs of these images.

I remain very much in debt to Bronwyn Lloyd, Thérèse Lloyd, Tracey Slaughter, and Michael Steven for valuable editorial advice, and Bronwyn in particular for her insightful afterword to the collection.

Many of the pieces included here have been previously published, some in different forms. Thanks again to the editors and publishers of all those anthologies, websites and journals for permission to reproduce them here. For further details, please visit https://bit.ly/3qzZJoT.

Crissi Blair: Salt & Greyboy Press (2019)

Abstract:

In a 1927 letter to Sigmund Freud, French writer Romain Rolland coined the term "the oceanic feeling" as a way of referring to that "sensation of ‘eternity’," of "being one with the external world as a whole," which underlies all religious belief (but does not necessarily depend on it). In his reply, Freud described this as a simple characterisation of the feeling an infant has before it learns there are any other people in the world.

Those of us living in the midst of the world's largest ocean, the mighty Pacific, may have our own understanding of this 'Oceanic feeling.' At any rate, those are some of the ideas underlying this, my sixth full-length poetry collection.

Many of the 44 poems included have been published previously in periodicals or online (a complete list of these is available here). The book also features reproductions of ten ink-on-paper drawings - titled collectively 'Prunings' - by Swiss/NZ artist Katharina Jaeger, together with an Afterword by Art Writer Bronwyn Lloyd.

The poems are grouped in two sections. The first, 'Family Plot', discusses some of the stresses and strains associated with my - I suspect fairly typical - family history. Dementia, filial discord, madness, suicide ... need I say more?

The second, 'Ice Road Trucker', named after a North American Reality TV show, examines the compromises and vexations of contemporary life, in and out of the Academy. Again, I hope these themes and events are sufficiently representative to strike a chord with readers.

The book concludes with some versions of poems by Russian poet Boris Pasternak and French-Romanian poet Guillaume Apollinaire.

Available:

Salt & Greyboy Press

RRP: $NZ 20.00 (+ postage)

William Bardebes: 'Printing' (8/2/21)

Reviews & Comments:

1. Tracey Slaughter, Launch speech for The Oceanic Feeling (March 11, 2021):
   

   
   It is one of the miracles of poetry that a scant handful of words arranged on a page can build around us a cathedral, the spatial ache and echo of unsayable feelings somehow cast aloft from a thin imprint of sounds.



2. Paula Green, "Poetry Shelf review: Jack Ross’s The Oceanic Feeling." NZ Poetry Shelf (August 19, 2021):
   

   
   The poetry seeks perspective in the corrugations and felicities of the everyday. In the little and larger events that shape and have shaped life. That nurture love, that spark a sense of humour, that trigger contemplation. The poems occupy the present but they also recuperate the past. I am moved by this.



3. Tim Saunders, "Finding Shelter in Time and Space: The Death of Music Journalism by Simon Sweetman (The Cuba Press, 2020), 90pp., $25; Shelter by Kirsten Le Harivel (The Cuba Press, 2021), 84pp., $25; The Oceanic Feeling by Jack Ross (Salt & Greyboy Press, 2021), 72pp., $20." Landfall Review Online (October 4, 2021):
   

   
   Jack Ross’ poems are at times dark but sprinkled with humour and sequestered in time and place. There are skeletons here, scattered through every page. An impression of finding shelter in isolation. A sensation of limitlessness. An oceanic feeling.



4. Mark Prisco, "Review of The Oceanic Feeling by Jack Ross (Salt & Greyboy Press, 2021), 72pp., $38.99." Poetry NZ Yearbook 2022 (March 14, 2022): 341-43.
   

   
   You've got to feel for him.



5. Jeremy Roberts, "Coffee and Poems." Facebook (April 10, 2023)
   

   
   I've been digging 'The Oceanic Feeling' by Jack Ross. He's shaped these poems with one sharp, humorous, little blade. Family, working life, history, and much else to feed on. Cool drawings by Katharina Jaeger, too. Recommended!

Jeremy Roberts - Poet

•


Paula Green: NZ Poetry Shelf (2013- )

Complete Review:

Paula Green. "Poetry Shelf review: Jack Ross’s The Oceanic Feeling." NZ Poetry Shelf (August 19, 2021):

Here I go reviewing a book again with the subterranean feeling I experienced last March, barely articulated, drenched in uncertainty, fearing for the well being of Aotearoa, fearing for the well being of our frontline workers, fearing for our understaffed hospitals, fearing that supermarkets will deal with aggressive behaviour from some shoppers, yet full of gratitude for our Government’s swift response, for everyone choosing to stay at home and wear a mask. The subterranean Covid effect saw me drifting around the house yesterday with Jack Ross’s new poetry collection, The Oceanic Feeling, in my hand. Not writing a word. Word-drifitng in and out of countless books. Worrying about Afghanistan. Listening to Reb Fountain. Worrying about Haiti. Sydney. All the people living alone. The homeless.

The title is so fitting. The oceanic feeling.

Layer it up. Stand by the ocean and get an intake of ocean beauty. Sit at my kitchen table looking onto the tail end of the Waitākere ranges and my potential for worry is oceanic. Below the surface in my blood and bones. Above the surface in those intruding thoughts that I try not to let settle at the station.

I love this title. This beautifully produced book with its white cover and striking image holds an ocean of feeling. Add in the white space, the unsaid. Add in the physical, the images that glint and hold your attention.

The cover drawing is by Swiss-New Zealand artist Katharina Jaeger, and is part of the suite of images included in the collection. Bronwyn Lloyd’s afterword explores the connections between the drawings and the poetry. Katharina was inspired by her father’s manic pruning, and rather than use the the pile of clippings as prunings, drew them instead. Bronwyn makes a vital link between prunings and the skeletons in the artist’s closets, in the poet’s closet, and by extension in our closets.

Poetry is both pruning and planting and, at times, opening the closet door is to shine a light on the tough, the difficult, the surprising.

Jack’s terrific new collection does just this. The poetry seeks perspective in the corrugations and felicities of the everyday. In the little and larger events that shape and have shaped life. That nurture love, that spark a sense of humour, that trigger contemplation. The poems occupy the present but they also recuperate the past. I am moved by this.

The book is essentially in two sections, like two halves of a heart, with ‘Family Plot’ alongside ‘Ice Road Trucker’. Family poems alongside poems that consider the academy, poetry journals, travel, public art, reading, thinking. There is also a tiny cluster of small poems and of translations.

The poetry peers into the mist, and swivels to embrace the clearly sighted.

A sublime example is ‘What to do till the sentinels come’. The poet’s mother (I am making this assumption) has forgotten to feed Zero the cat when they are away. The cat hides in the garden shed, unfed. Here is the mist and the close at hand. The poem as the pruned twig.

it’s not that my mother
neglected her task
on purpose
she’d written in her diary

FEED THE CAT!
it’s just that her mind
now fills in blanks
with certainties

not doubts
there was a slight pause
before that “fine”
all I know is our cat

left alone
in the storm
my mother alone
in the fog of her brain

In the opening poem, ‘Lone Pine’, a tree crew are pruning the pines. The physical scene unfolds, and in reaching the visual impact of the tallest tree with its branches stripped bare, the loss doubles back. This is the pruned branch laid on the page: ‘standing bare / just like my father at the end’.

2021 is the season of memoirs. Long form and all revealing.

And yes, The Oceanic Feeling is a form of memoir. Fragmented. Selective. Revealing. It is also a form of engagement with both ideas and feelings. Poetry as a way of discovering chords between here and there, this and that, now and then. So many layers. So many connections. ‘Family skeletons’ does this. The sister with her suicidal thoughts, witnessed throwing a rope over a tree, who later succeeds with pills, is both presence and absence. Again I am picking up a branch laid upon the page and I am feeling it deeply.

Ah, I am moving in so many directions, as I read Jack’s collection, from the cars loved and then replaced, to bookshelves and superstitions, to wrangling over the colours of a graduation hood, to a university department lovingly built up over time, to be faced with cutbacks.

What makes this book resonate so deeply with me is movement. Physical and emotional movement. Not on a grand over-the-top flare of sentimentality but in small measured steps that favour contiguity. I relish the shift between what is easily witnessed in the everyday and what is much harder to fathom, what is retrieved in glimmers and shards across time. it is a collection that warrants a prolonged sojourn. Glorious.

I am going to leave you with ‘What do you want?’. The poet is in a Feilding library, having driven down for a function. The poem swerves and I am utterly affected.

What do you want?

said the librarian
in Friendly Feilding
to come in from the cold
was my reply

we’re closing an hour early
for a function
the function I’d driven down for
I walked away

he’s crying
but he doesn’t know
why he’s crying
said my sister

to the primer one teacher
who wanted to know why
I guess I do too
I guess I do

I was small and afraid
of a brand-new place
so many people
but what remains

is kindness
my sister
trying to help
unavailingly

Jack Ross

Jack Ross works as a senior lecturer in creative writing at Massey University. He is the author of five poetry collections and eight works of fiction, most recently Ghost Stories (Lasavia Publishing, 2019) and The Oceanic Feeling (Salt & Greyboy Press, 2021). He blogs here

Jack reads from The Oceanic Feeling

Notes to The Oceanic Feeling

Jack reads and comments on ‘1942’

.

Paula Green

•

Poetry NZ Yearbook 2019 [Issue #53]

Cover Design by Jo Bailey /
Typesetting by Megan van Staden

Poetry New Zealand Yearbook 2019. ISBN 978-0-9951029-6-5. 344 pp.

Contents:

Jack Ross / Editorial: What makes a poem good? / 14-20

FEATURED POET

Stephanie Christie

Stephanie Christie / 22

1. Microchasm / 26


2. Crossing the Park / 28


3. Unfinished Objects / 29


4. Amethyst / 31


5. -OH / 32


6. Mag[net]ic / 38


7. Flow(n / 40


8. Clod / 42


9. Krisis. / 44


10. Poverty Mentality / 46


11. FleshselF / 48


12. SQWANDER / 50


13. Nix / 52


14. Madeness / 55


15. Stephen Hawking’s Dead / 58


16. Mall Song / 59


17. Parachute / 61


18. Felt calculus / 63


19. Bode / 64

Jack Ross / An Interview with Stephanie Christie / 68-74

Stephanie Christie: Aubade (2013)

NEW POEMS

Gary Allen / The God complex / 76

John Allison / Die Luft hier in Laft … / 77

Aimee-Jane Anderson-O’Connor / Mice / 78

Miguel Ángel Arcas / Finales de los sesenta / 79

– / The End of the Sixties [translation by Charles Olsen] / 80

Shelley Arlidge / Albatross / 81

Stu Bagby / Who is it who remembers? / 82

Tony Beyer / The Globe / 83

Victor Billot / So as not to wake / 85

Benjamin Blake / Lost Recordings / 86

Cindy Botha / My Mother’s Hands, Mine / 87

Mark Broatch / Kererū / 89

Steve Brock / Humble Wine / 90

Owen Bullock / not knowing / 91

Chris Cantillon / Truckdriver / 92

Marisa Cappetta / Homeless like bones / 93

Mariana Collette / DNA / 94

Rose Collins / the Port Hills hare considers rock fall risk / 96

Jennifer Compton / Cat Sitting in Brunswick East / 97

E J Doyle / Inheritance / 98

Rachael Elliott / Wheel / 99

Johanna Emeney / RLSV / 101

Bonnie Etherington / Catcall on Oakton Street / 103

Mike Evans / Impermanence / 104

Rachel J Fenton / Break / 105

Jess Fiebig / morning after / 107

Sue Fitchett / I, robot / 108

Katie Fitzpatrick / Confession / 109

Dara Flaws / Dad / 110

Alexandra Fraser / Piha night / 112

Kim Fulton / This is it, Ruahine Range / 113

Ruth Hanover / The Oranges / 115

Paula Harris / I will go on tour and read my poetry all over the world / 116

Jenna Heller / tanka / 118

Sara Hirsch / Nocturnal / 119

Joy Holley / Twenty / 121

Alice Hooton / Lover / 122

Amanda Hunt / Family Skeletons / 123

Gail Ingram / Morning flight / 124

Ross Jackson / The exit / 125

Adrienne Jansen / The children in the dark canoe / 126

Lincoln Jaques / The Things He Left Behind / 127

Annie Tuarau Jones / For My Sister / 129

Robert Kempen / Hey, what is going on / 130

Paula King / The Square / 132

Elizabeth Kirkby-McLeod / The Daughter Goes To Hospital By Car / 133

Katrina Larsen / Life is Like a Bag of Cats / 134

Jessica Le Bas / Near Blind Channel / 135

Wes Lee / By the Lapels / 137

Michele Leggott / the wedding party / 138

Izzy Lomax-Sawyers / Pre-loved / 141

Olivia L. M. / The harrowing ... / 142

Victoria McArthur / Self Portrait / 143

Olivia Macassey / Elephants / 145

Isabelle McNeur / Moss / 146

– / Happy Parents under the Microscope / 147

Mary Macpherson / On being unwilling to click ‘I forgot my password’ / 149

D. S. Maolalai / Raspberries / 150

Ria Masae / Children’s Eyes / 152

Layal Moore / Two / 154

Margaret Moores / Black and white / 155

Martha Morseth / The street / 156

Fraser Munro / Paper bags don’t have feelings / 157

Emma Neale / The TastiTM Taste Guarantee / 158

– / Affidavit / 160

Keith Nunes / In the bookshop uttering / 162

Stephen Oliver / Protocols / 164

Bob Orr / The Vegas Girl / 166

Hayden Pyke / Danger is my Family Name / 167

essa may ranapiri / Gallows / 168

Vaughan Rapatahana / Rangiaowhia, 1864 / 169

– / ngā rākau / 171

Ron Riddell / Remains of the Day / 172

Gillian Roach / The Object Disappeared / 173

Fiona Roberton / Chinese medicine / 174

Jeremy Roberts / A Movie Ticket & a Little Bit of Philosophy / 175

Siobhan Rosenthal / Whanau / 176

Dadon Rowell / Lily Bennett / 177

Sigune Schnabel / Grenzland / 178

– / Borderland [translation by Simon Lèbe] / 179

Sarah Shirley / Long lie / 180

Tracey Slaughter / mostly a/b/c/d / 181

– / archaeological / 183

Barry Smith / Arrival / 184

Ian C. Smith / Remembering Willie Pep / 185

Lauren J. Smith / you never know what’s on the other side / 186

Elizabeth Smither / Ten conductors / 187

– / Strange dream / 188

Stephen Smithyman / My Father and the Poplar Tree, 1979 / 189

John Tarlton / On Sabbatical / 190

Loren Thomas / Friends / 191

Tybalt / intimacy is a sick puppy / 192

Bryan Walpert / from Micrographia: Of the Bookworm / 193

– / Of the pores of bodies / 195

Laura Williamson / Wrong turn on the Hump Ridge Track / 196

Sue Wootton / from Typewriter songs: Anywhen / 198

– / Olivetti / 199

Sigred Yamit / Sweater / 200

Grace Yee / for the good husband / 201

Mark Young / Concerning / 203

Zuo You / I accepted his apologies (translation by Yi Zhe) / 204

COMPETITIONS

Poetry New Zealand poetry prize:

First prize ($500)
Wes Lee / The Things She Remembers #1 / 206

Second prize ($300):
Brett Gartrell / After the principal calls / 210

Third prize ($200):
Natalie Modrich / Retail / 213

Poetry New Zealand Yearbook student poetry competition

First prize (Year 11):
Aigagalefili Fepulea'i-Tapua'i / 275 Love Letters to Southside / 214

First prize (Year 12):
Kathryn Briggs / Earth is a Star to Someone / 217

First prize (Year 13):
Amberleigh Rose / Snake’s Tongue / 218

ESSAYS

Elizabeth Kirkby-McLeod: A Map of Effort

Elizabeth Kirkby-McLeod / Telling without Looking / 222-33

Jessica Pawley / Dreaming of Death: The Hangover of History in Derek Walcott’s ‘The Schooner Flight’ / 234-46

Erena Shingade / A Buddhist Hermitage on Great Barrier Island: Richard von Sturmer’s Suchness / 247-60

Richard von Sturmer: Clothesline on Great Barrier

REVIEWS

Ella Borrie / Owen Bullock / 262-64:

• Owen Bullock. semi. Glebe, NSW: Puncher & Wattmann, 2017. RRP $AU 25.00. 126 pp.

Mary Cresswell / Anna Jackson - Marlène Tissot - Tātai Whetū - Majella Cullinane / 265-70:

• Anna Jackson. Dear Tombs, Dear Horizon. Limited edition of 200 copies. Wellington: Seraph Press, 2017. RRP $20. 24 pp.
• Marlène Tissot. Last stop before insomnia / dernier arrêt avant l’insomnie. Trans. Anna Jackson & Geneviève Chevallier. Seraph Press Translation Series No. 3. Wellington: Seraph Press, 2017. RRP $20. 40 pp.
• Tātai Whetū: Seven Māori Women Poets in Translation. Ed. & trans. Maraea Rakuraku & Vana Manasiadis. Seraph Press Translation Series No. 4. Wellington: Seraph Press, 2018. RRP $20. 40 pp.
• Majella Cullinane. Whisper of a Crow’s Wing. ISBN 978-1-98-853122-9. Dunedin: Otago University Press / Ireland: Salmon Press, 2018. RRP $27.50. 88 pp.

Rachael Elliott / Rogelio Guedea - Jan Fitzgerald / 271-74:

• Rogelio Guedea. Punctuation. Trans. Roger Hickin. Lyttelton: Cold Hub Press, 2017. RRP $25.00. 48 pp.
• Jan Fitzgerald. Wayfinder: New & Selected Poems. Wellington: Steele Roberts Aotearoa, 2017. RRP $24.99. 64 pp.

Johanna Emeney / Michele Leggott / 275-78:

• Michele Leggott. Vanishing Points. Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2017. RRP $27.99. 132 pp.

Matthew Harris / Mark Pirie / 279-82:

• Boots: A Selection of Football Poetry 1890-2017. Ed. Mark Pirie. Wellington: HeadworX, 2017. RRP $30. 102 pp.
• Mark Pirie. Sidelights: Rugby Poems. Wellington: HeadworX, 2017. RRP $20. 80 pp.

Elizabeth Kirkby-McLeod / Jenny Powell - Damian Ruth - Mercedes Webb-Pullman / 283-88:

• Jenny Powell. South D Poet Lorikeet. Lyttelton: Cold Hub Press, 2017. RRP $29.95. 88 pp.
• Damian Ruth. On Edge. Wellington: HeadworX, 2017. RRP $30. 134 pp.
• Mercedes Webb-Pullman. Track Tales. Magill, South Australia: Truth Serum Press, 2017. RRP $Aus 11.00. 118 pp.

Bronwyn Lloyd / John Howell - Annabel Wilson / 289-96:

• John Howell. Homeless. Submarine. Wellington: Mākaro Press, 2017. RRP $25.00. 68 pp.
• Annabel Wilson. Aspiring Daybook: The Diary of Elsie Winslow. Submarine. Wellington: Mākaro Press, 2018. RRP $25.00. 128 pp.

Elizabeth Morton / Michael Steven - Tony Beyer / 297-302:

• Michael Steven. Walking to Jutland Street. Dunedin: Otago University Press, 2018. RRP $27.50. 88 pp.
• Tony Beyer. Anchor Stone. ISBN 978-0-473-341104-6. Lyttelton: Cold Hub Press, 2017. RRP $39.95. 166 pp.

Jack Ross / Dan Davin - Alistair Paterson - Johanna Emeney / 303-13:

• Dan Davin. A Field Officer’s Notebook: Selected Poems. Ed. Robert McLean. Lyttelton: Cold Hub Press, 2018. RRP $29.95. 82 pp.
• Alistair Paterson. Passant: A Journey to Elsewhere. London: Austin Macauley Publishers, 2017. RRP £8.39. 302 pp.
• Johanna Emeney. The Rise of Autobiographical Medical Poetry and the Medical Humanities. Studies in World Literature, 5. Stuttgart: ibidem-Verlag, 2018. RRP €29.90. 264 pp.

Richard Taylor / Keith Westwater - Peter Rawnsley / 314-20:

• Keith Westwater. No One Home: A Boyhood Memoir in Letters and Poems. Submarine. Wellington: Mākaro Press, 2018. RRP $25.00. 88 pp.
• Peter Rawnsley. Light Cones. Submarine. Wellington: Mākaro Press, 2018. RRP $25.00. 74 pp.

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS / 322-40

ABOUT POETRY NEW ZEALAND / 342-43

Samples:

Massey University Press

Poetry New Zealand Index

Poetry New Zealand Website

Reviews & Comments:

1. Anna Bowbyes, Poetry New Zealand Student Poetry Competition Winners. Massey University Press (24/8/18):
   

   
   We are thrilled to announce the winners of the Poetry New Zealand Yearbook Student Poetry Competition, judged by Jack Ross.
   
   To read all the winning entries, click here.
   
   Congratulations to all the winners and thanks to everyone who entered!
   
   The first-prize winners in each category will be published in next year’s edition of Poetry New Zealand Yearbook, publishing in March 2019.”





2. Aorere College Facebook Page (13/9/18):
   

   
   A huge congratulations to Fili Fepulea'i-Tapua'i who has won the Year 11 category of the Poetry New Zealand Yearbook Competition.
   
   Described as “hard-hitting,... from the heart" by competition Judge Jack Ross, Fili's winning poem- "275 Love Letters to Southside" will be published in the 2019 edition of the Poetry New Zealand Yearbook. What an awesome achievement!.







3. Amberleigh's winning way with words. Kuranui College Online Newsletter (19/9/18):
   

   
   Kuranui Deputy Head Girl, Amberleigh Rose, has won first place in the high school section of the Massey University Press Poetry Yearbook competition, designed to foster a love of words.
   
   Amberleigh’s poem entitled Snake’s Tongue is an unconventional poem about love, causing one of the judges to comment in their feedback that they liked it because “It was a bit different and showed wisdom beyond her years”.
   
   “It’s what I call my weirdo poem,” explained Amberleigh. “It’s not straightforward and it twists and flicks, keeping you guessing.”
   
   The poem is going to be in next year’s edition of the yearbook and someday she would like to write a book of poems herself. For Amberleigh, poetry is a passion, especially slam poetry. “I love the way the words feel and their sound, the meaning behind how you speak and what message you’re trying to send.”
   
   Growth, another one of Amberleigh’s poems, was chosen to be a part of Christine Daniell’s ‘Poems Around Town’. The street art project focuses on fostering a love of words. A panel chose poems from Wairarapa to hang up around the community and Amberleigh’s poem has pride of place on the side of the Trust Lands Trust building in Masterton.
   
   Writing comes naturally to Amberleigh, but it wasn’t until she experienced poetry that her creative side really took off. “It was like a key had turned inside me and there was no going back.”
   
   Kuranui’s Head of English, Kathryn Holmes, said her work ethic and natural ability has meant that she has excelled at the college. “However, it is her heart that makes her very special; this adds depth to her poetry which means her message can resonate with the reader.”
   
   Apart from writing poetry, Amberleigh also excels in the sciences and her love of environment and communities has seen her enrol in Canterbury University, where she will study Natural Resource Engineering. “I am interested in making our world a cleaner, better place.”





4. Congratulations Kathryn Briggs. Baradene College of the Sacred Heart (1/11/18):
   

   
   In Term 3, Kathryn's poem "Earth is a star to someone" received 1st place for the Year 12 category of the Poetry New Zealand Yearbook competition run by Massey University. This poem will be published in next year’s edition of 'Poetry New Zealand Yearbook'.
   
   Click here to read 'Earth is a star to someone'.”






5. Nicola Legat, Massey University Press website:
   

   
   A dose of terrific new New Zealand poetry
   
   Poetry New Zealand Yearbook, this country’s longest-running poetry magazine, showcases new writing from New Zealand and overseas. It presents the work of talented newcomers as well as that of established voices. Issue #53 features 130 new poems — including work by this year’s featured poet, Stephanie Christie — essays, and reviews of 30 new poetry collections.
   
   Continually in print since 1951, when it was established by leading poet Louis Johnson, this annual collection of new poetry, reviews and poetics discussion is the ideal way to catch up with the latest poetry from established and emerging New Zealand poets.
   
   Praise for the 2017 edition:

   ‘It’s all too easy to look around at naked bachelors marrying at first sight, and clowns clowning where current affairs used to be, and despair about the state of the world and the taste of the people in it. But then, the Poetry Yearbook turns up again, to show there is still room for sophistication and quality at a reasonable price.’ — Paul Little, North & South

   For a full list of the poets featured in this year’s edition and to read the introduction, click here.

   CATEGORY: Creative arts
   ISBN: 978-0-9951029-6-5
   ESBN: N/A
   PUBLISHER: Massey University Press
   IMPRINT: Massey University Press
   PUBLISHED: 08/03/2019
   PAGE EXTENT: 344
   FORMAT: Soft cover



6. Jesse Mulligan, "1-4." Celebrating New Zealand Poetry (Monday 11 March 2019):
   

   
   

   
   
   Jesse Mulligan 1-4

   
   
   Poetry New Zealand Yearbook's 2019 edition is out now, focusing on Hamilton poet Stephanie Christie, and containing more than 120 poems.
   
   The country's longest-running poetry journal also features the work of young kiwi poets, winners of the inaugural competition for high school students.
   
   Dr Jack Ross, senior lecturer at Massey University and managing editor of Poetry New Zealand, joins us now to give us a taste of what's in the yearbook.
   
   Duration:  12′ 17″



7. Jennifer Little, "New Poetry NZ Yearbook moves in many ways." Voxy.co.nz (Wednesday 13 March 2019):
   

   
   "I feel the most proud of this volume," says Dr Ross, of the fifth consecutive edition of the Poetry New Zealand Yearbook he has edited, not including one as a guest editor some years ago.
   
   He says in the book’s introduction, What makes a poem good?, that being moved emotionally has increasingly become his sense of a successful poem, which may be about something funny, or painful or revealing. "It’s not that I sit here boo-hooing as I read through all the submissions for each issue - but every now and then something in one of them sits up and looks alive, persuades me that something is being worked out here that might be relevant to others simply because it seems so relevant to me."
   
   Mostly, he hopes the book will help to make poetry more visible, more accessible and maybe ignite new interest among a wider, more culturally diverse audience. This edition is his last as editor for the time being - he is handing the editorial reins for the next issue over to Dr Johanna Emeney, a published poet and creative writing lecturer at Massey. He is hoping to be able to devote more time to working on his own writing, with a project in the pipeline to explore his longheld fascination about ghost stories and the psychology behind them.



8. Jennifer Little, "New Poetry NZ Yearbook moves in many ways." Massey News (Wednesday 13 March 2019):
   

   
   

   
   
   Stephanie Christie (5/3/19)

   
   
   Dr Ross, a poet, editor and senior lecturer in the School of English and Media Studies at Massey’s Albany campus, says the task of sifting through over a thousand submissions to choose 130 for the book is formidable as well as a tremendous privilege. Always with an ear tuned for fresh and challenging new voices and views, he has mustered a bracing array of poetry from a diverse set of writers.
   
   From modern probes into religion, romance, love, death and loss to the inner lives of a retail worker, a refugee, a doctor, a drunk – the eclectic mix offers poems in a multitude of forms, including prose pieces. As well as captivating lines by emerging poets there is new work by some of the country’s most respected names, such as New Zealand’s inaugural Poet Laureate Michele Leggott, along with Elizabeth Smither, Emma Neale and Bob Orr. There are dual-text poems too, in Chinese, German, Spanish and te reo Māori, as well as 20 poems and an interview with featured Hamilton poet Stephanie Christie.

   
   
   Fardowsa Mohamed (5/3/19)
   
   
   
   
   
   Michele Leggott (5/3/19)
   
   
   


9. Paula Green, "Poetry Shelf review: Poetry New Zealand Yearbook 2019." NZ Poetry Shelf (26 March 2019):
   

   
   Poetry New Zealand Yearbook always offers a substantial selection of poetry. This issue includes essays, reviews and the results of two poetry competitions, along with poems from new and established poets. I started reading the issue – I always dip and dive into literary journals – and made notes, gathering the poems that ‘spoke to me’. But then I hit the rest button and realised I was running on empty post big project. I have lain on a couch for a week and stared at the sky and after the horrendous terrorist event in Christchurch everything feels different. Because everything must be different. What happens when I pick up this journal again with a raucous bust-up of questions in my head: How to live? How to speak? How to connect? How to write a poem? How to run a blog? How to widen us and make room for past, present and future, to celebrate the good things and challenge the rest?
   
   I picked up Poetry New Zealand again and started at the first page. No dipping and diving. Just tracking an alphabet of voices and letting poetry work its magic.



10. Harry Ricketts, "Book review - Poetry New Zealand Yearbook 2019." Nine to Noon, with Kathryn Ryan (Tuesday 4 June 2019):
    

    
    

    
    
    Kathryn Ryan: Nine to Noon

    
    
    Harry Ricketts from quarterly review periodical New Zealand Review of Books Pukapuka Aotearoa reviews Poetry New Zealand Yearbook 2019. Edited by Jack Ross, this collection is published by Massey University Press.
    
    Duration:  9′ 07″



11. Emma Shi, "Book review: Poetry New Zealand Yearbook 2019." The Reader: The Booksellers New Zealand Blog (13 June 2019):
    

    
    I look forward to The Poetry New Zealand Yearbook each year, because it’s so wonderfully filled with all things poetry. It’s also a great way to see the current landscape of New Zealand poetry, with familiar names making an appearance alongside newer poets.
    
    ... I also appreciate the addition of reviews and essays in Poetry New Zealand, since creating discussions about poetry is also a rewarding process that brings new ideas to life. As well as being an important space for the work of New Zealand poets, this new instalment will inspire writers to continue writing and to introduce new methods in their craft.

•


photograph: Mary Paul

Complete Interview:

10 Questions with Jack Ross
Editor of Poetry New Zealand Yearbook 2019

This interview appeared on the Massey University Press website on 16th January 2019:

1. Another Poetry New Zealand Yearbook is off to print. What are the strengths of the 2019 edition?

I think this may well be the issue I’m proudest of so far. We have a very strong poetry feature, from one of New Zealand’s most original — though still strangely neglected — poets. We have a nice blend of essays, ranging from the very personal (Elizabeth Kirkby-McLeod’s piece on her father’s suicide) to the profoundly learned (Erena Shingade’s analysis of Richard von Sturmer’s Zen poetics). We have deeply considered reviews of a range of recent books. Above all, though, we have a positive cornucopia of poems by hordes of poets old and new. I defy anyone not to find something to like in there.


2. How many submissions were there this time around?

272 email submissions (more or less) , together with 11 mail submissions: averaging four or five poems each — I guess that would add up to something like 1275 poems I had to read through to come up with the 100-odd I was able to include.


3. Was sifting through them to arrive at your shortlist of 126 any less challenging than usual?

No. It always takes far longer than I think it’s going to. First there’s the reading, and the initial winnowing of as few submissions as possible into the ‘potentials’ file. Those few keep on growing and growing, alas, because so many writers send in so many fine poems. Then there’s the final cutting and slashing at the longlist of poems I’d like to put in, designed to transform that category into poems I simply have to include.


4. There’s a great spread of age and experience in this book. Does the number of young writers bode well for poetry in New Zealand?

Well, yes, I think it does. Mind you, the subject matter of their poetry tends to be darker than I would like sometimes — but there’s no denying that the intensity of the emotions these young writers feel tends to concentrate their work amazingly. There’s nothing diffuse or self-indulgent about the best of them. But they seem only too aware that they’ve been doomed to live in interesting times. Franklin Roosevelt said in the 1930s that the generation then coming of age had ‘a rendezvous with destiny’ ahead of them. As it turned out, he was quite right. I can’t help feeling that the same may be true of this generation, too.


5. Why do some poets get two poems?

That’s an interesting one. I guess I start off looking for one poem from each submission, but some writers strong-arm me into taking more than one: the sheer merit of their work demands it. The default setting remains one each, but I can’t deny myself — and our readers — the pleasure of reading two excellent poems if they’re there on the page. It’s certainly got nothing to do with famous names or poetic reputations: just the quality of the work submitted.




Stephanie Christie



6. This year’s featured poet is Stephanie Christie. When did you first come across her and why did you decide to feature her?

I think I first met Stephanie in the early 2000s. I’d seen her work in brief, and had in fact discussed it with the then editor, John Geraets. I didn’t really get it at the time, but he said that she lived in the same apartment block, and had shown him some work and he thought it at the very least worth taking a punt on. But then I heard her read at Poetry Live, and it was quite a revelation. I could see that she understood precisely what she was doing in fragmenting and breaking up her words in such an ostentatious and flamboyant way. I do understand why some readers continue to resist this L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E-influenced approach to poetry, but for myself I’ve long since concluded that her body of work has lasting value. To me, in fact, she’s one of New Zealand’s most unsung and undervalued poets.




Wes Lee



7. Not one but two competitions this year! Tell us about the Poetry New Zealand poetry competition winners announced in this edition.

Yes, two quite different competitions. The first was the usual selection of the most outstanding poems submitted for each year’s issue. It’s an invidious choice, but when I first read Wes Lee’s poem ‘The Things She Remembers #1’, it completely transfixed me. When I heard it had already been accepted for publication elsewhere, I felt quite stricken. Luckily, though, the other magazine didn’t follow through, so I was happy to grab it for our pages. Brett Gartrell’s ‘After the principal calls’ was another strong contender for the top spot. Natalie Modrich’s ‘Retail’ is a bit of a change of pace, but it’s very amusing (it seems so to me, anyway). The winners this year are longer than in previous years: but I felt in each case that they needed that length to create the complex emotions their authors were dealing with.




Fili Fepulea'i-Tapua'i



8. And give us an insight into the student competition entries and winners.

The second competition, for school kids from Years 11, 12 and 13, was a real joy to judge. I chose a winner and three runners-up for each level, and I was spoiled for choice. The first prize winners from each have been included in the issue. There’s nothing naïve or half-formed about these poems, I have to say: they’re strong, confident work, by young writers who have a great deal to say. I hope that this success will help in encouraging each of them to keep writing: these are the kinds of young poets we will need in the future, I feel. I suppose that my personal favourite would have to be Aigagalefili Fepulea‘i-Tapua‘i’s passionate anthem ‘275 Love Letters to Southside’, but I like the slinky sensuality of Amberleigh Rose’s ‘Snake’s Tongue’ and the Joni Mitchell-like idealism of Kathryn Briggs’ ‘Earth is a Star to Someone’ very much also.




Amberleigh Rose





Kathryn Briggs



9. Can you see any sort of shift in content between the time six years ago that you took the helm as editor and this edition?

That’s an interesting question, too. Those first two issues look a bit tentative to me now. I hadn’t quite defined how my version of Poetry New Zealand would differ from Alistair Paterson’s — nor (for that matter) how the look of it might diverge from John Denny’s pared-back layouts. Nor did I realise at that stage that opening up the magazine to online submissions would encourage so many younger – as well as so many international — poets to send in work. The main difference, though, is that the poetics section, the essays and reviews, has grown much more varied and interesting — the poetry section was always strong.


10. Are there poetry books on your beside table at present or something else? What are you reading at the moment?

Well, at present I’m engaged in the rather lengthy task of rereading the greatest of the four classic Chinese novels: the Hung Lou Meng, or Red Chamber Dream (also known as The Story of the Stone). The Penguin translation, which I’m using this time — in preference to the only other complete version in English, from the Beijing Foreign Languages Publishing House — is in five volumes, so you can see that it’s quite an undertaking.

As for poetry, I have to admit that my bedside book right now is Rudyard Kipling’s Complete Poems. I’d always meant to read him all the way through, and the appearance of the new Cambridge edition — a copy of which I found second-hand in a bookshop in Lyttelton — has encouraged me to do so at last. He’s a bit of an acquired taste to those of us brought up on pared-back Modernism, but he’s still surprisingly readable (and really no more reprehensible politically than T. S. Eliot or Ezra Pound ...)

•