{"id":4772,"date":"2011-04-12T07:30:41","date_gmt":"2011-04-11T19:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=4772"},"modified":"2011-04-12T08:39:50","modified_gmt":"2011-04-11T20:39:50","slug":"tuesday-poem-castle-rock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2011\/04\/12\/tuesday-poem-castle-rock\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuesday Poem: “Castle Rock”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A week and 26 poets later, the Tuesday Poem Blog community’s birthday poem is complete. Definitely a “wow” moment—and please do<\/span> take a moment to read it on the hub, here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Castle Rock<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rotating in mid-air,
\nsuspended between blue above,
\nbleached tussock below,
\nface to face with the ragged crag
\nof Castle Rock, sun flashes
\noff her watch, dazzling
\nas the first time they met
\nin the Roxborough fish and chip
\nshop, high above the Clutha River:
\nhis presence, blazing in,
\nwas like the sun rising,
\nspilling over energy, snaring her
\nwith his eagerness for living \u2013
\ndazzled then too, but now
\nher eyes clear, take in hill, sky,
\nrock, as someone shouts \u2013 she kicks
\nhard into the face, finds purchase
\nas the rope plays out.<\/p>\n

.<\/p>\n

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

.<\/p>\n

~ first published, The Christchurch Press<\/strong>, July 18, 2007;
\n~re-published, Crest to Crest: Impressions of Canterbury Prose & Poetry<\/strong><\/em>, Ed. Karen Zelas, Wily Publications, 2009<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

The reason for selecting Castle Rock <\/strong><\/em>for this week’s Tuesday poem, is that last week I saw this post, Our Changed Landscape: Castle Rock, Te Tihi o Kahukura<\/a>,<\/strong><\/em> on the Christchurch City Libraries’ Blog<\/strong><\/a>. The post laments a loss of part of the face of Castle Rock during Christchurch’s 7.1 earthquake of 4 September 2010. Although I understand intellectually that change is part of life, emotionally I feel the loss of landmarks such as this—because both as Port Hills’ natural feature and a favourite haunt for rock climbers, Castle Rock has been an integral part of our cityscape since its founding. And a sense of place, I believe, is part of what gives us our sense of belonging and a basis for cultural identity.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

For other poems by Tuesday Poets, check out the sidebar of the hub<\/a>—or click on the Quill<\/strong> icon in my sidebar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A week and 26 poets later, the Tuesday Poem Blog community’s birthday poem is complete. Definitely a “wow” moment—and please do take a moment to read it on the hub, here. — Castle Rock Rotating in mid-air, suspended between blue above, bleached tussock below, face to face with the ragged crag of Castle Rock, sun […]<\/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-4772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4772","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=4772"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4786,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4772\/revisions\/4786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}