A Fool For Poetry: I'm Reading At The Metro On 1 April

 
I'm the guest poet at Music & Poetry at the Metro this coming Sunday, 1 April. Here's the lineup:

Guest Musicians: Ramon Oza and Susie Colien-Reid

Open Mike

Guest Poet: Tim Jones

The Metro is at 7 Lydney Place, Porirua, and the session runs from 4-6pm.

I'll be reading from Men Briefly Explained and trying a few newer poems out as well.

If you're on Facebook, you can sign up for the Facebook event and also see the Music at the Metro Facebook page for more news: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Music-at-the-Metro/301841379852705

Here is some more information about the guest musicians:

Black Eyed Susie

Ramon Oza and Susie Colien-Reid are the core sound of four piece original Celtic rock band Blackeyedsusie. Ramon has played electric guitar professionally for 35 years, starting with supporting his family by performing 6 nights a week for a 5 star hotel in India. Susie studied classical violin to diploma level, until her love of 70’s rock drew her to develop the freelance raw style she enjoys today. Individually both have performed for major international acts ranging from the Drifters, to the Alabama Blind Boys. As a duo their sound is a blend of high energy Celtic and Funk Blues Rock influence.

Voyagers Sets Sail With A Great Crew

Voyagers: Science Fiction Poetry from New Zealand is making its public debut at the New Zealand Poetry Society monthly meeting in Wellington on Monday 17th August. The meeting, which starts at 7.30pm at Wellington's historic Thistle Inn, will feature local poets with work in Voyagers reading two poems each: one of their own poems from the anthology, and one other poem from the anthology that they particularly like.

The featured poets will include:

Puri Alvarez
Chris Else
Robin Fry
Tim Jones
Rachel McAlpine
Jane Matheson
Harvey Molloy
Michael O'Leary
Mark Pirie
Vivienne Plumb
Helen Rickerby
Mike Webber

I'm really pleased that so many poets have agreed to come along for Voyagers' maiden voyage!

As usual, the Poetry Society meeting will start with an open mike, so it's a good opportunity to come along, read your own work if you wish, and listen to some fine poets read poems from Voyagers.

There will be copies of Voyagers available for sale at the meeting, but if you're not going to be there and would like a copy, you can buy Voyagers from Amazon.com as a paperback or Kindle e-book; New Zealand Books Abroad; or Fishpond. You can also find out more about Voyagers, and buy it directly from the publisher, at the Voyagers mini-site.

Paekakariki City Limits

I spent several hours today engaged in a poetic expedition to Paekakariki, which is a small town on the Kapiti Coast north of Wellington - a rather beautiful small town nestled in the sandhills by the sea.

Helen Rickerby, Harvey Molloy and I travelled up in Harvey's car to rendezvous with Helen Heath at the Paekakariki School Fair and give a joint poetry reading. Helen Heath set up the gig, and the rest of us were pleased to have the chance to take part.

I had very little idea what to expect, but I thoroughly enjoyed the day - though the heat was a bit much for my cold-adapted blood; the Kapiti Coast is usually hotter than Wellington, and by the time we got there just after 11am, Paekakariki was sweltering. The fair was big - I've never seen a fair with three different types of bouncy castle before, though I'm sure you city slicker types see that all the time. We moved through the fair to the hall, and set out our stall. We all had things to sell:

Helen Heath: CD "Seven Paekakariki Poets Reading"

Harvey Molloy: New poetry collection Moonshot

Helen Rickerby: New poetry collection My Iron Spine; previous collection Abstract Internal Furniture; and JAAM 26 - Helen publishes JAAM.

Tim Jones: Recent poetry collection All Blacks' Kitchen Gardens and first poetry collection Boat People; new short story collection Transported and first short story collection Extreme Weather Events.

We did two reading sessions, half an hour apart, with a fine performance by a Thai dance troupe in between. I found the first session hard going, because most of the notional audience were actually in the hall to eat their lunch; but, by the second session, more of the people in the hall were paying attention - and if they weren't, Harvey got their attention with the first poem he read! The sales table ticked along well, each of us met some people we knew whom we didn't know would be there, and afterwards, we had a good time checking out Helen Heath's craft stall and haunting the book stall, where it was lovely to see Dinah Hawken again.

Doing a solo reading can be stressful, and if the audience isn't responding, there's really nowhere to turn. Doing a joint reading with friends was fun, supportive, social, and as it turns out, profitable as well. If you've got an event coming up in the Wellington region which could benefit from a visiting poet or three, please get in touch!

A Reading and a Deadline

The news today consists of two items:

First item: I'll be the guest reader at the next monthly reading session of the New Zealand Poetry Society. That's taking place on Monday 17 March, from 7.00pm [not 7.30pm as listed earlier - sorry!], in the Paramount Theatre Lounge in Courtenay Place, Wellington. There's a cafe and a bar to hand, and (judging by February's session) a nice, relaxed atmosphere. Entry is by koha, which often entails a gold coin donation.

The format is that we start with an open reading session, where you can bring along your own work to read if you wish, then there's a short break, then I read for a while, then there's a Q&A session if anyone has any Qs they'd like me to to A. I'll be reading a mixture of poems from All Blacks' Kitchen Gardens and newer work. We'll finish round about 8.30pm. Hope to see you there!

Second item: there's just under a month to go until the submission deadline for Issue 26 of JAAM Magazine, which I'm editing. You can find all the details at http://timjonesbooks.blogspot.com/2008/01/im-editing-jaam-26.html. Submissions have been coming in, but there's room for plenty more.