New Zealand Poetry Day

Posted by Nelson Public Libraries on 26 July 2010

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From 26th July there is a Poetry Wall in the library where you can pin up your own poem or your favourite poem.

The Elma Turner Library celebrated New Zealand Poetry Day on 30th July 2010 with Poetry readings at the library.

Changes in Trafalgar Street

by Carol Ercalano

Back then it was plain grey
dressed in propriety
Summer’s fiery hammer fell
beyond verandah shade

Only Fridays came alive
Saturdays were dead

Now it’s a vibrant scene
Trees and seats
Red brick paving
Flowers riot
Musicians busk
Jewels and clothing
drape the corners
Cafes spill
onto the street

Saturdays are full of life
Fridays are dead

Hole in Huia Lake

by Nancy Eisenberg

(1)

the lake has a monster hole
a Dune worm with lips of concrete

the mouth is fifty feet wide

smooth water slides down its sides
organizes into little waves
edged in foamy undulating white
like a Japanese lithograph

the top half of the water drops onto the
lower half like cars merging on the motorway
except instead of taking turns
they fold into each other

(2)

 there is a hole in the water

it bends towards the dam
through rocky shoulder material
an impervious clay core and filter blanket
into a chimney drain

You’d die, knock against the sides
Like the sticks we throw
You’d scud and break on the concrete

thank you to the engineer who put
a viewing hole in the floor of the bridge
big enough for one human eye at a time
to look into the centre of the vortex

also chest high steel enclosures
for the easily hypnotised

Chocolate (abbreviated)

by Bernard Vavasour

I have a disease within me,
It’s a love of chocolate you know,
I cannot put it down,
I cannot let it go.

It encompasses me in its sweetness,
Wrapping me within its embrace,
My appetite for it is never ending,
It’ll be there when I’m a ghost.

Raisin, Rum, Milk, Dark and Peppermint,
Slabs, pieces or wrapped in tinfoil,
It’s all the same to me in my crazy dreams,
When thoughts of choc will me unfold.

Some get a craze for tobacco,
For the peace and pleasure it gives,
Others like their alcohol,
But for me it’s the chocolate that’s hip.

Drinks after work

by D. Bennett

Sound bites of energy
coloured riffs threaded with
emotive intellect and innuendo
layered overtones and undertones
releasing tension safely into company
thought tracks cross paths of sepia secrets
and you lace trust in the spirit of sub rosa as
ideas are pushed to the brink of sanity
with the serious tumbling into hilarity
which makes you smile at 3am
when sleep escapes and you
wonder why you didn’t
think of that
and mind to
revisit it
from another angle
at drinks after work next week.

The Emigrants farewell

by W. Moore

(from “The farewell and other poems”)
I in foreign countries must seek for the pleasures
And favors of fortune I here cannot find
Yet still I remember, with warmest affection,
My country and friend that is faithful and kind.
Now farewell to Scotland and all her blue mountains,
Her wood-skirted valleys so blooming and gay:
Her dark winding streams, and her clear siller fountains,
Dear land of my forefathers, farewell for aye.

Albion Square Chain

by Anon

You once could measure with your brains
In links and inches yards and chains
And long before the metric curse
With coin of the realm still in your purse,
You could pace out distance with your feet
Or use the lampposts in the street.
And back when all the globe seemed red
And teachers were still held in dread,
You sat up straight on seats with cracks
And learnt imperial’s obtuse facts.

This all came back in Albion Square
When I saw The Chain located there.

 

Watch this space for more poems...