{"id":15443,"date":"2012-08-21T06:30:53","date_gmt":"2012-08-20T18:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=15443"},"modified":"2012-08-19T23:00:36","modified_gmt":"2012-08-19T11:00:36","slug":"tuesday-poem-for-a-new-technician-by-sarah-jane-barnett","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2012\/08\/21\/tuesday-poem-for-a-new-technician-by-sarah-jane-barnett\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuesday Poem: “For a new Technician” by Sarah Jane Barnett"},"content":{"rendered":"

For a new Technician<\/h3>\n

The room is shuttered by a grey curtain.
\nThere is a red telephone on the corner table<\/p>\n

next to the heart monitor. The chair looks
\nlike a La-Z-Boy or the seat an astronaut
\nwould be strapped into, ready for blast off.<\/p>\n

The public crowd around the rocket,
\nwell out of range behind a one-way screen,<\/p>\n

anxious and stern, the rumble in the walls
\ncrawls inside their stomachs. They wonder<\/p>\n

if they will see a light so bright it burns
\ncoral in the clouds? Will they have to look away?<\/p>\n

The astronaut mouths, Don\u2019t watch, Mama.
\nI\u2019m sorry I\u2019ve been such a lazy boy<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

(c) Sarah Jane Barnett<\/p>\n

Published in A Man Runs Into A Woman<\/em> (Hue & Cry Press) 2012<\/p>\n

Reproduced here with permission<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

About the Poem:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Sarah Jane Barnett<\/a> is a fellow Tuesday Poet and A Man Runs Into A Woman<\/em> is her first collection, fresh out from Hue & Cry Press on August 10.\u00a0 “For a new Technician”<\/em> is drawn from a sequence of nine poems that explore the gap between the last words of Texas death row inmates, and the grim police reports of their crimes.<\/p>\n

I chose to feature one of the poems from this sequence because I liked their sense of rawness and emotional power and I have always had a preference for poetry that is about something real, something that matters.<\/p>\n

In featuring one of Sarah’s poems today though, I also note the comment by Hue and Cry publisher, Chloe Lane, that: \u201cFor several years now, Sarah has been building a reputation for striking, original poetry, sometimes unsettling, often very moving.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Paula Green<\/a> also affirms Sarah’s work: \u201cAs the cartographer of human experience, Sarah Jane Barnett steps boldly into the shoes and lives of others \u2013 a cable television engineer, a geographer, a pipeline worker. Her alert mind and canny eye for detail translate and transform what we may have missed in the world into poetic vignettes that are both light-footed and fresh.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

About the Poet:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Sarah Jane Barnett was born in Christchurch but now calls Wellington home. She moved there in a 2005 to study for a Masters in Creative Writing, and is currently completing a creative writing PhD after being awarded a Massey Doctoral Scholarship. Her PhD combines both creative writing and research to investigate the difficulties of nature poetry.<\/p>\n

She has a one year old son and has worked in a government and the private sector as an IT manager.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>To read the featured poem on the Tuesday Poem Hub<\/strong> and other great poems from fellow Tuesday poets from around the world, click here<\/strong><\/a> or on the Quill<\/strong> icon<\/strong> in the sidebar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For a new Technician The room is shuttered by a grey curtain. There is a red telephone on the corner table next to the heart monitor. The chair looks like a La-Z-Boy or the seat an astronaut would be strapped into, ready for blast off. The public crowd around the rocket, well out of range […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15443"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15456,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15443\/revisions\/15456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}