Woodville poet wins national competition
Events locally and around the country mark National Poetry Week
In its 25th year, Libraries Tararua celebrated National Poetry Week and in particular Phantom Stickers National Poetry Day across the district on August 26.
Libraries, book stores, cafes and more around the country are fortunate to be the recipient of funding for these celebrations by Phantom Billstickers, a modern street poster business who have been helping New Zealanders express themselves since 1982.
Eketahuna Library kicked off the week’s events by holding its poetry evening on Wednesday night.
A good turnout of 10 local poets attended and recited a mix of poems from famous poets, along with a few who read their own work.
There were a lot of laughs and even a few tears — poetry has a way of drawing out the human emotions and is the best therapy!
Dannevirke, Woodville and Pahiatua libraries on Thursday hosted a Pass It On Poetry event in which an opening line is written by one participant, which is passed on to the next who adds a line which is passed on to a third, continuing around the group until it returns to the initiator who adds the last.
In Dannevirke three participants had an interesting and fun afternoon.
On Friday all the libraries hosted a Cut Up Poetry activity using words and phrases cut from magazines.
These tended to influence the thought process in an interesting manner as the two examples from Dannevirke show.
Highlight of the week however was the announcement of the winner of the Phantom Stickers National Poetry Competition run by Tararua Libraries.
Entries had been accepted for original poetry not previously published and drew 28 entries from throughout New Zealand. Topics ranged widely from reflections on life to historical events and current situations. The highly commended list included:
■ Piles of Weeds
■ Hand to Mouth
■ Poem for Pono at Parihaka
■ Thinking of You
■ The King & Queen of Quarantine
■ Nana’s Kitchen
The poems were judged by
Chris
Gallavin who is Adjunct Professor at Massey University, and is an internationally recognised thought leader on tertiary education and many other issues.
He is passionate about poetry and inspiring young leaders to change the world, taking poetry to the masses, a review in 2018 saying, “Working from a repertoire of dozens of New Zealand poems recited by heart, along with the stories and tales of their authors, their lives, loves and social settings, Chris weaves a narrative of New Zealand seldom told.”
He said in his review of the competition:
“Poetry is too important to be locked in books. In New Zealand it is facing a massive resurgence. It has been an incredible honour to judge these competitions and to have the privilege of reading some really good works. I can honestly say that there isn’t a rubbish poem among them, rather clear evidence of great dedication by a small group of local citizens — there are even a few I’d like to add to my show in pubs and clubs. Thanks Tararua — poetry is in good hands around these parts!”
His winner was Shirley
Silvester of Woodville with her poem Eccentric.
Of it he said: “I love this — I love the pedigree within many of the great poets — it is of a very particular style and flow — which, for me, gives it a grounding in solid, dependable foundation — again belying its seeming frivolity.”
Shirley was thrilled to win a national competition. She had won the local competition two years ago and says it is nice to win in the big league. She said she wrote the poem “quite a while ago” and to date she has not carried out any of her prophesies “except eating chocolate for breakfast”. Perhaps the remainder will be on her bucket list.
ECCENTRIC By Shirley Silvester
When I’m sixty-five or seventy I’m going to reinvent myself as an eccentric.
I won’t have to worry about losing my job. They won’t stop my pension just because I’m eccentric.
At last I can do what I want.
I’ll start in a small way, with harmless little things like wearing odd socks in clashing colours or my old overcoat in the surf. I will make a crazy hat from a Union Jack. I’ll eat chocolates for breakfast and order dessert before main course at a fancy restaurant.
Then I’ll work up to something bigger, bursting into song at the supermarket or dancing at the doctor’s surgery.
Well, maybe not that, it could be risky.
I might learn to play the alpenhorn.
My house will have a mural of Noah’s Ark on the side wall and a miniature Stonehenge in the back yard.
I’ll hold a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party among the dolmens. Journalists will clamour for
invitations.
Finally I’ll collect a hundred and one different sorts of wind chimes and hang them all on the front veranda.
When the southerly blows it’ll drive the neighbours insane. My gentle revenge for the Boom Box.
Whatever I decide to do You can bet
Someone will try to stop me. I’d better get started soon.
There were plenty of other Cut Up Poems.
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You can find all of the poetry entries on the Libraries’ Tararua blog Tararua District Library (NZ) : Te Whare pukapuka o Ta¯maki-nui-a-Rua (wordpress.com)