{"id":44034,"date":"2026-08-27T06:30:28","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T18:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=44034"},"modified":"2026-08-26T10:30:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T22:30:20","slug":"unleash-the-power-tomorrow-is-national-poetry-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2026\/08\/27\/unleash-the-power-tomorrow-is-national-poetry-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Unleash The Power — Tomorrow is National Poetry Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Monday, I farewelled Riemke Ensing<\/a>, including a closer look at her poem O Lucky Man<\/em>, which was part of the collection of the same name, celebrating Charles Brasch<\/a> (1909 – 1973) and his life in letters.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A tribute that felt all the more fitting since tomorrow is National Poetry Day. If you’re in NZ and looking for an event, check out the National Poetry Day website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

To get in the spirit myself, I’m reposting my poem — and in the spirit of the recently released My Brilliant Career<\/em> series, I’ve chosen:<\/p>\n

Outback<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

red dirt drifts<\/span>
\nalong narrow tyre<\/span>
\ntracks<\/span><\/p>\n

heat shimmers<\/span>
\nagainst bleached<\/span>
\nsky<\/span><\/p>\n

a homestead settles<\/span>
\ninto earth, its last<\/span>
\nneighbour<\/span><\/p>\n

a solitary chimney<\/span>
\n\u2013 the car slows,<\/span>
\nstops<\/span><\/p>\n

ochre dust<\/span>
\nfilters through air<\/span>
\nconditioning<\/span><\/p>\n

coats everything:<\/span>
\nclothes, shoes,<\/span>
\nskin<\/span><\/p>\n

the screen door sags<\/span>
\non its hinges, hello<\/em><\/span>
\nechoes<\/span><\/p>\n

through empty rooms<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

(c) Helen Lowe 2008<\/span><\/p>\n

First published in Poetry NZ<\/strong> (September 2008)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Monday, I farewelled Riemke Ensing, including a closer look at her poem O Lucky Man, which was part of the collection of the same name, celebrating Charles Brasch (1909 – 1973) and his life in letters. A tribute that felt all the more fitting since tomorrow is National Poetry Day. If you’re in NZ […]<\/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-44034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44034","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=44034"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44041,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44034\/revisions\/44041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}