{"id":26843,"date":"2014-09-23T06:30:02","date_gmt":"2014-09-22T18:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=26843"},"modified":"2014-09-23T07:57:15","modified_gmt":"2014-09-22T19:57:15","slug":"the-tuesday-poem-refeaturing-bernadette-hall-and-the-fox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2014\/09\/23\/the-tuesday-poem-refeaturing-bernadette-hall-and-the-fox\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tuesday Poem: Refeaturing Bernadette Hall and “The Fox”"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Fox <\/strong><\/p>\n

The fox is a single red stroke that cuts across
\nthe clearing. The colour seems to hang like smoke,
\nyou can almost see where she has come from.
\nHer musk (though you can smell nothing)
\nis specific like a thumbprint on the air.
\nIt isn\u2019t raining but there\u2019s a kind of wet
\non your face, a stickiness of insect juices dropped.
\nThe fox is rusty-dull, discreet, not radiant or hot
\nor pulsing. Not agitated. Not randy.
\nShe is completely dream and intelligence
\nsliding through the wet grass, the stinging nettles,
\nthe little brittle helmets of dry seed,
\na flower or two, relics of the drizzly, petalled summer.
\nThe lyric fox goes down to the creek
\nwhere dark and dankness will mask her scent
\nand the lovely rosette of her face.
\nShe\u2019ll be able to pause there, for a while, sip water
\nwhile the dogs swirl and bell in front of the Big House.<\/p>\n

(c) Bernadette Hall<\/p>\n

from The Lustre Jug<\/strong> <\/em>(VUP) 2009<\/p>\n

The Fox<\/em> was a Best New Zealand Poem 2009<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Fine poems should be read and heard more than once, so I’m continuing with my series of relooking at poets who have had multiple poems featured here on “…Anything, Really”<\/em> since I joined the Tuesday Poem community in June 2010. Bernadette Hall’s “The Fox” was both one of the early poems featured, on 17 August 2010, and has also been one of the most enduringly popular in terms of readers’ visits. I hope you enjoy re-reading it today.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

About Bernadette Hall:<\/h4>\n

\"Bernie<\/a>Bernadette Hall is best known for her poetry but also writes short fiction. She has published ten collections of poetry, the most recent being \u2018Life & Customs\u2019<\/strong> (Victoria University Press 2013). Also in 2013, her edition of poems by the Christchurch writer, Lorna Staveley Anker, was published by Canterbury University Press. Titled \u2018The Judas Tree\u2019<\/strong> it reveals Lorna Anker as New Zealand\u2019s first woman war poet with memories of both World Wars. The Dunedin composer Anthony Ritchie used seven of Bernadette\u2019s Stations of the Cross<\/em><\/strong> poems in a symphony which premiered in Christchurch on the 22nd <\/sup>of February this year as a memorial to those who died and those who have suffered as a result of the 2011 earthquake.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

\"TuesPoem\"<\/a>To check out 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

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

on the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Fox The fox is a single red stroke that cuts across the clearing. The colour seems to hang like smoke, you can almost see where she has come from. Her musk (though you can smell nothing) is specific like a thumbprint on the air. It isn\u2019t raining but there\u2019s a kind of wet on […]<\/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-26843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26843","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=26843"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26850,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26843\/revisions\/26850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}