Tuesday Poem: Revenant

When they pulled me from the water

I had scarcely finished breathing

My fingernails dripped blood and sand

My slack-jawed face had turned the blue of ocean

They pushed and pulled my heart to action

I stumbled from the cooling sand

and ate the proferred wafer

All along my neck and arms

the hair stood up in terror

I knew you would see nothing

My eyes still blink

my lips still speak my

feet still strike the pavement

We laugh and smile

and in your speech I

hear the kelp pods cracking

But in the moonless dark of night

avoid the outer windows

I walk beneath the summer rain

and see the green mouth closing

In my wake the crusted salt

dissolves upon the grass blades

Credit note: "Revenant" was published in my first poetry collection, Boat People (2002).

Tim says: I tried this idea - a fantasy/horror transfiguration of the time I nearly drowned in 1989 - as both a short story and a poem. I never got anywhere much with the story, but this poem made it into my first collection. If I was writing it now, there are some things I would do differently, but I like the lurching rhythm that gets going for a while in the third stanza.

The Tuesday Poem: Is particularly worth checking out at the moment, as the jazz poem the Tuesday Poets are collectively writing for the third anniversary of the Tuesday poem is growing vaster than empires, and a good deal quicker.

My First "Book Watch" Column For The New Zealand Herald

A couple of months ago, Nicky Pellegrino, who edits the New Zealand Herald's books page, contacted me after seeing my two-part summary of my 2012 reading (Part 1 | Part 2) to ask whether I would be interested in writing an occasional "Book Watch" column for the Herald on Sunday: short comments on 3 or 4 books I've read recently, with no restrictions as to the genres covered.

That seemed to fit pretty well with the fact that I keep track of my reading on LibraryThing, so I said "yes" - and here is my first column. Only the first three of these pocket reviews were published in the Herald, but as I really enjoyed Wolves Eat Dogs I have posted that mini-review here too.

Book Watch Column 24 March 2013

The Glass Harmonica, by Dorothee Kocks, published by Rosa Mira Books (2011) - see http://rosamirabooks.com/books/index.html#tgh (US $7.00 ebook)

This novel by US author Dorothee Kocks was the first book published by Dunedin-based ebook publisher Rosa Mira Books. It is a beautifully-written story of Revolutionary France, post-revolutionary America, and the invention of pornography as a commercial genre. The central character Chjara, a Corsican virtuoso of the glass harmonica, is vivid and engaging.  I wasn’t always convinced by the actions and motivations of her American lover Henry, but that’s a minor flaw in this fine novel which was a pleasure to read on my newly-acquired Kindle.

Flaubert's Drum, by Sugu Pillay, published by IP (2012) - see http://ipoz.biz/Titles/FD.htm (NZ $15 ebook, $28 paperback)

Already an accomplished playwright and short story writer, Sugu Pillay is now showing her strength as a poet. Born in Malaysia, she now lives in the South Island. Flaubert’s Drum, which is her first poetry collection, is a very interesting and wide-ranging set of poems that moves between Asia and New Zealand, between epic and earthquake, between the turtles of Chendor Beach and the schist of Lindis Pass. I especially enjoyed the final section of the book, which does a lovely job of tying the book’s strands together. Technically accomplished and often moving poetry.

The Aviator, by Gareth Renowden, published by Limestone Hills Publishing (2012), book 1 of The Burning World series - see http://burningworldbooks.wordpress.com/ (NZ $6.99 ebook, US $15 paperback)

Gareth Renowden is best known as a journalist and science blogger – in particular, for the Hot Topic blog on climate change. With The Aviator, Book 1 of a planned series, he turns to science fiction. In a world in which runaway climate change proceeds unchecked, airship pilot Lemmy (no relation to Motörhead) and his AI and human companions tour the world from their base in the Marlborough Sounds, visiting the communities springing up in parts of the world made newly livable and experiencing the terrible consequences of runaway climate change throughout most of the world. If you like the great near-future science fiction novels of Kim Stanley Robinson, I think you will enjoy The Aviator.

Wolves Eat Dogs, by Martin Cruz Smith, published by Pan (2005), available from Amazon.com - see http://www.amazon.com/Wolves-Dogs-Arkady-Renko-Novels/dp/0671775952 (from US $10.88 paperback)

Martin Cruz Smith made his name with his first novel featuring melancholy but determined Russian detective Arkady Renko, Gorky Park. This is the fifth Renko book, and it's outstandingly good. Renko is the classic good cop in a bad place: dogged, incorruptible and determined on uncovering the truth whatever the cost to himself. In this book, the bad place is the Zone of Exclusion surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear plant. Smith does a great job of putting Renko in the path of the teeming wildlife and the secretive humans that live in the Zone. Highly recommended even if thrillers aren’t normally your thing.

Tuesday Poem: Ford Madox Brown, The Last Of England

“THE LAST of England! O’er the sea, my dear,

    Our homes to seek amid Australian fields,

    Us, not our million-acred island yields

The space to dwell in. Thrust out! Forced to hear

Low ribaldry from sots, and share rough cheer

    With rudely-nurtured men. The hope youth builds

    Of fair renown, bartered for that which shields

Only the back, and half-formed lands that rear

The dust-storm blistering up the grasses wild.

    There learning skills not, nor the poet’s dream,

        Nor aught so loved as children shall we see.”

She grips his listless hand and clasps her child,

    Through rainbow tears she sees a sunnier gleam,

        She cannot see a void, where he will be.

Credit note: The name of this poem is actually "For the picture, 'The Last of England'". Ford Madox Brown wrote it in 1855 to accompany his famous painting. It exists in a couple of versions; this version hangs in the Birmingham (UK) Museum and Art Gallery.

Tim says: Ford Madox Brown began work on this painting in 1852, when emigration from the UK was at its height - according to Wikipedia, over 350,000 people emigrated that year, from a country whose population is much smaller than it is now.

I have this painting as a black and white illustration in a book, and had always imagined that the couple in the foreground (modelled by Ford Madox Ford and his wife Emma; their children also appear in the picture) were staring back at England. In fact, the white cliffs of Dover are in the top right of the picture, and the couple are looking resolutely away. When my family and I sailed out of the English channel in 1961 on our way to New Zealand with a boatload of assisted immigrants, I imagine the emotions felt by the adults on board may have been somewhat similar.

The Tuesday Poem: Moves between cultures.

Words On The Wind: Wellington Central Library, 6pm Wednesday 20 March

I'm looking forwards to taking part in this reading at Wellington Central Library tonight:

And I also enjoyed taking part in this interview with Sally Dunn for the Nelson Mail: Beyond Infinity: Writing Science Fiction.

Tuesday Poem: Media Advice To The Disgraced CEO

Don't try to sell your story. That would only remind the public
of the millions in bonuses, the failed investments, the workers
turned out on their ear. Don't try to sell your story,
but make sure you have a story to tell.

It's hard to appear contrite - we know. Think of yourself
as an actor playing a part. Mention a disabled relative you've
(quietly, anonymously) been helping out. A cause
you're passionate about: animal rescue, flower shows.

That first interview is crucial. Show them
you're not a monster but a man. A monster doesn't care - a man
makes mistakes, has made mistakes. You admit mistakes were made.
You're only human and you got things wrong.

And as for your latest bonus: you offered to return it,
but the company said no. So what you're going to do is,
you're donating it instead. (Animal rescue, flower shows. A hospital?)
But for this interview, you wouldn't have told a soul.

Remember contrition? Now you have to show it. The interview
is hard for you, and by the end you're dabbing at your eyes.
The public will swallow any grade of bullshit
that is packaged with a redemptive tear.

Credit note: This is a new and previously unpublished poem.

Tim says: You might think that this poem is inspired by recent events, but I couldn't possibly comment.

The Tuesday Poem: Is ready to rock.

Tuesday Poem: Jump In The Fire

Toss it all in. The smoke

thick, greasy, the cinders

cuffed this way and that

by a turbulent breeze.

Hide your eyes. Retreat

until the wind backs off.

Seize handfuls, volumes. Let fire ants

devour the close-furled leaves.

There's something — you feel it —

of the night, of the lupine

act, unclawed, unfurred,

of living through another day.

Something of triumph. You dart

back, and then back to the flame.  

Credit note: "Jump In The Fire" was first published in my third poetry collection, Men Briefly Explained.

Tim says: I guess this poem has its origins in the garden waste fires Dad used to build when I was young, fires with a flammable core surrounded by turf that were designed to burn at a low heat for a long time so that we could load on more grass, branches etc as we worked on our large and unruly garden - this was when we lived in Otatara, south of Invercargill, in the late 1960s. Somewhere along the way, a sport of book-burning seems to have attached itself to the concept.

The Tuesday Poem: Is going to wait till the midnight hour. 

The Stars Like Sand: Australian Speculative Poetry - Call for Submissions

They're heeeere! Cross-posted from my co-editor's blog, here are the full submission guidelines for forthcoming anthology The Stars Like Sand: Australian Speculative Poetry. Australians, and expatriate Australians, are welcome to submit up to three poems for the anthology. The closing date for submissions is 4 June 2013. Make sure to read the full guidelines before you submit, and have fun out there!

THE ANTHOLOGY

The Stars Like Sand is a planned anthology of Australian speculative poetry. Speculative poetry is poetry in the science fiction, fantasy, horror and related genres. (Please see below for a fuller definition.) It is intended that the anthology will include both new and previously-published poetry, and include a historical survey of the field. The anthology is intended for publication in 2014.

The anthology will be published by IP (Interactive Publications Pty Ltd) of Brisbane, a leading Australian poetry publisher. IP previously published Voyagers: Science Fiction Poetry from New Zealand in 2009 (see http://www.ipoz.biz/Titles/Voy.htm). Further information about IP is below.

The editors are New Zealand poet Tim Jones, who co-edited Voyagers, and Australian poet P. S. Cottier. Please see the editor bios below.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Please note: Submissions do that not follow the guidelines below are unlikely be successful. In particular, attachments will not be read.

1) Submissions are now open. Please submit your poem(s) by midnight on 4 June 2013. Any submissions received after the editors check their email the following morning will not be considered.

Submission format

2) Send no more than three (3) poems in an email message to starslikesand@gmail.com with the subject line "Submission to The Stars Like Sand".

If you submit more than three poems, whether in one message or in separate messages, we will read only the first three you submit. You are welcome to send fewer than three poems.

3) Include your poem(s) in the body of your email message. Do not send attachments. Attachments will be not be read.

If your poem has special formatting requirements which cannot be reproduced in the body of an email, please send it anyway within the body of your email, but include a note about the formatting requirements. If necessary, we will get back to you to request a copy in the correct format.

4) Due to space limitations, we prefer to be sent poems of 50 lines or less. While we will still read longer submissions, they will have to be exceptional to be included. There is no lower limit on lines, so you are welcome to send haiku and other short forms, provided you send no more than three poems in total.

5) You are welcome to submit both unpublished and previously-published poems:
a) Unpublished poems: Unpublished poems selected for inclusion will be eligible for the Rhysling Awards: see http://www.sfpoetry.com/rhysling.html
b) Previously-published poems: Please supply full details of previous publication, including online, magazine and book publication. If permission is required from a publisher for your poem to be reprinted, we will ask you for the publisher's contact details, and for your help with securing permission to reprint the poem in "The Stars Like Sand" should your poem be selected for inclusion.

6) If you are unsure what speculative poetry is, please see the notes below. If you are still not sure whether your poem fits, please send it anyway - we would rather read some poems that don't fit than miss out on good but "borderline" poems.

7) After your poem(s), please include a biography of no more than 100 words in the body of your email message. Your biography may be edited for reasons of space.

Responding to submissions

8) We will respond to all submissions as quickly as possible. However, the time taken to respond depends on the volume of submissions received. Please be aware that, due to size limitations on the anthology, many submitted poems of merit will, unfortunately, have to be rejected.

9) Previous experience suggests that we are unlikely to be able to include all the previously-published poems we initially select for inclusion, due to difficulties obtaining reprint permissions. Should this occur, we may return to some poems that we were unable to include in our initial selection and ask the poets whether we can now include these poems in the anthology. We will do this only as and when necessary, so please do not resubmit poems which were initially rejected, or submit new poems, unless we ask you to.

Payment

10) All poets included, or their estates in the case of deceased poets, will receive a free copy of the anthology. There will no monetary payment for included poems.

Who can submit?

11) Residents of Australia, and Australians not currently resident in Australia, are eligible to submit. If you are unsure whether you are eligible to submit, please include a note in your email submission letting us know your situation.

WHAT IS SPECULATIVE POETRY?

Speculative poetry is poetry that falls within the genres of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, plus some related genres such as magic realism, metafiction, and fabulation. It is not easy to give precise  definitions, partly because many of these genres are framed in term of fiction rather than poetry.

A good starting point is ""About Science Fiction Poetry" by Suzette Haden Elgin, the founder of the Science Fiction Poetry Association, which you can read here: http://www.sfwa.org/members/elgin/SFPoetry.html

Despite its title, this article is applicable to all forms of speculative poetry.

ABOUT THE EDITORS

Tim Jones

Tim Jones is a New Zealand poet and author of both literary fiction and science fiction who was awarded the New Zealand Society of Authors Janet Frame Memorial Award for Literature in 2010.

Among his recent books are fantasy novel Anarya’s Secret (RedBrick, 2007), short story collectionTransported (Vintage, 2008), and poetry anthology Voyagers: Science Fiction Poetry from New Zealand(Interactive Press, 2009), co-edited with Mark Pirie. Voyagers won the “Best Collected Work” category in the 2010 Sir Julius Vogel Awards. Tim's third poetry collection, Men Briefly Explained, was published by Interactive Press in late 2011.

Tim's poem "The Translator" appeared in Best New Zealand Poems 2004, and his short fiction has appeared in, among many other venues, Best New Zealand Fiction 4 (2007), and The Penguin Book of Contemporary New Zealand Short Stories (2009). His short story “The New Neighbours” was included inThe Apex Book of World SF, Volume 2 (2012).

In 2011, Tim edited a special issue of the Science Fiction Poetry Association's online journal Eye to the Telescope, devoted to speculative poetry by Australian and New Zealand poets – see http://eyetothetelescope.com/

P. S. Cottier

P.S. Cottier's third poetry collection is the suite of poems "Selection Criteria for Death", published inTriptych Poets Issue Three, Blemish Books in 2012.  She has shared the David Campbell Award, given for the best unpublished poem by an ACT region writer.  Her prose poem "Pod, cast", originally awarded first place in a US science fiction competition in 2008, was included in The Indigo Book of Australian Prose Poems (2011).  Penelope has had many fantasy and science fiction poems published in non-genre journals and newspapers, such as The Canberra Times and Eureka Street.

Penelope is also widely published in speculative journals in Australia and elsewhere, such as Star*Line(US) and Chiaroscuro: Treatments of Light and Shade in words (Canada).  Her poem "Fingernails" was recently nominated for the Rhysling Awards, and her magic realist poem "Eight things you may not know about Vladimir Putin's dog" was included in the inaugural Australian Poetry members' anthology.

She wrote her PhD in literature at the Australian National University.

ABOUT IP

Interactive Publications Pty Ltd has been in business since 1994 and has been growing steadily since then. IP currently publishes 35+ titles per year, and is the second largest publisher of literary titles in Queensland.

Interactive Press is one of four imprints of IP. Interactive Press is one of the leading poetry imprints in Australia, publishing up to eight titles each year. Interactive Press titles are generally released via conventional print, as well as in print on demand (POD) and various eBook formats for outlets such as Amazon, Apple, Google, Kobo, Overdrive, eBooks Corp and Wheelers, making them accessible to audiences world-wide.

IP's publisher is Dr David Reiter, himself a prize-winning poet and author.