{"id":31716,"date":"2016-03-15T06:30:47","date_gmt":"2016-03-14T17:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=31716"},"modified":"2016-03-14T21:34:51","modified_gmt":"2016-03-14T08:34:51","slug":"tuesday-poetry-more-lines-from-leaving-the-red-zone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2016\/03\/15\/tuesday-poetry-more-lines-from-leaving-the-red-zone\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuesday & Poetry: More Lines From “Leaving The Red Zone’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Leaving<\/a>Last week, I\u00a0shared some of the wonderful lines and stanzas from the “September” (ie 4th, 2010: the 7.1 earthquake) from Leaving the Red Zone —\u00a0<\/em>the\u00a0poetry anthology (edited by James Norcliffe and Joanna Preston, and published by Clerestory Press) that commemorates the fifth anniversary of the February 22, 2011, earthquake.<\/p>\n

The September 4 earthquake may have been bigger on the Richter scale, but it was the violent vertical accelerations of the February 22nd quake (6.3), which struck at 12.51 pm, that really devastated my home city of Christchurch.<\/p>\n

Today, I am sharing some lines and stanzas from the “February” section of Leaving the Red Zone<\/em>.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

…………………………………………….”<\/span>“…Students<\/em><\/span>
\nrepeating the phrases — Good Morning, Good Evening, Good<\/em><\/span>
\n-bye. It is nine o’clock, it is ten to eleven. The time<\/em><\/span>
\nis twelve fifty-one.”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Joanna Preston, “Fault”
\n.<\/span><\/p>\n

“The earth roared, jack-hammered<\/em><\/span>
\nbucked like a brahman bull<\/em><\/span>
\nat a rodeo.”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Keith Westwater, “February 22, 2011, Report 1”
\n.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I am driving through the river\/that is my road\/to find my<\/em><\/span>
\ndaughter…<\/em><\/span>
\nmy daughter is three\/ she shelters under the battle-club\/ she hides<\/em><\/span>
\ninside the ground\/ the enemies of god\/ circle on the backs of<\/em><\/span>
\nbuzzards\/ they rain bricks on the bus dept\/ the primary school\/<\/em><\/span>
\nthe preschool<\/em><\/span>
\nI snatch her up\/like a football\/ I sprint the slowest steps\/it is<\/em><\/span>
\nunderwater\/ this dream\/ it is eternal”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Tusiata Avia, “Finding Sepela; 22 February”
\n.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Listen —<\/span><\/em>
\nRuaumoko*<\/span><\/em>
\nwalks the land<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

…<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

his first steps close<\/span><\/em>
\nviolent,<\/span><\/em>
\nhis last echoes<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

he treads down the hallway<\/span><\/em>
\nhe moves away<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

he leaves the door<\/span><\/em>
\nopen”<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Rangi Faith, “Walking The Land”
\nChristchurch, February 22nd 2011<\/em><\/p>\n

*Ruaumoko is the Maori god of earthquakes<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last week, I\u00a0shared some of the wonderful lines and stanzas from the “September” (ie 4th, 2010: the 7.1 earthquake) from Leaving the Red Zone —\u00a0the\u00a0poetry anthology (edited by James Norcliffe and Joanna Preston, and published by Clerestory Press) that commemorates the fifth anniversary of the February 22, 2011, earthquake. The September 4 earthquake may have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-earthquakepoems","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31716","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=31716"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31716\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31726,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31716\/revisions\/31726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}