What I’m Reading: “broadsheet 7”
Recently I mentioned that I had received my contributor’s copies of broadsheet 7: new new zealand poetry (The Night Press) edited by Mark Pirie. broadsheet is a by-invitation publication and I was pleased to be able to contribute Starman and also Penelope Dreaming from the Ithaca Conversations sequence. Since receiving broadsheet, I have also been enjoying the process of working through the journal, savouring the work of my fellow poets. Because I like to take poetry slowly, rather than galloping through, I haven’t finished yet. And because I always work through from beginning to tend, I haven’t yet reached the featured guest, Anthony Rudolf of the UK, or the other poets in the latter part of the journal.
So, like Arnie in Terminator 2, I’ll be back … But for now I can say that I am very much enjoying broadsheet 7 and there are both poems and lines within them that delight, from Emma Barnes‘ opening poem, Sacral:
” … I play quartet notes. I play
crotchets. The string wound
around me bodily. I am tied
in the bowing of a cello
in the crowing of a crowd.
The crowning of your head
The cawing of you crawling.
You open your eyes and say:
“What magic is this?” …”
to the magic realism of Basim Furat’s Students of Hondori (translated by Abdul Monem Nasser; edited by Mark Pirie):
“ …The cries of sellers there
awaken in me an adoration for an ancient land
where jewels are words, river water is sold in jars
and sea scent covers the stalls …”
and Sarahda Koirala’s delicate irony in Portrait:
“ … But after the photo you took a day off
brightening the shadow on my face
cast by the open window
and air-brushing the hair from my eyes.”
These are just a small sample of the many fine poems on offer, but I hope they tempt you to dip into broadsheet 7 for yourself.