{"id":9221,"date":"2011-10-25T06:30:41","date_gmt":"2011-10-24T17:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=9221"},"modified":"2011-10-21T23:47:39","modified_gmt":"2011-10-21T10:47:39","slug":"tuesday-poem-thinning-by-tim-jones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2011\/10\/25\/tuesday-poem-thinning-by-tim-jones\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuesday Poem: “Thinning” by Tim Jones"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thinning<\/strong><\/h3>\n

We age in birthdays and anniversaries, gatherings
\nof welcome and farewell. “You’re looking good,” we say,
\ndespite receding hairlines, bellies rounding by the year –<\/p>\n

too little exercise, too much time
\nspent in front of screens. Babies
\nare now children; children, amazingly, teens,<\/p>\n

embarked on their own, mysterious journeys.
\nWith offspring pairing up and parents fading,
\nwe will soon be grandparents, elders,<\/p>\n

joining Grey Power, plotting world cruises,
\nor clinging on bravely till a resentful State
\nthrows spatters of coin at our needs.<\/p>\n

Once there was a world of manual typewriters
\nand Gestetner stencils. We were the coming thing, and then,
\nthe moment varying for each of us, history rolled past<\/p>\n

and left us in its wake. There are more gatherings
\nahead: phone calls, arrangements.
\nIt will be sudden. It will be long-expected and<\/p>\n

(we say behind our hands) really, a relief.
\nAt the funeral home. At St Mary’s. On the short,
\nspringy grass next to the family crypt.<\/p>\n

Afterwards, coffee, comfort food, a few
\ndiscreet but welcome drinks, the chatter
\nresuming once again. The relatives<\/p>\n

puzzled, trying to work out who we are.
\n“You’re looking good,” we say, the conversation
\nconducted in whispers, in echoes, thinning.<\/p>\n

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

(c) Tim Jones<\/p>\n

~ from Men Briefly Explained<\/em><\/strong>, Interactive Press, 2011<\/p>\n

Reproduced here with permission<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>About the Poem:<\/h3>\n

I wanted to feature a poem from Tim’s third poetry collection, Men Briefly Explained<\/em><\/strong>, which has just been published by Interactive Press. Tim was kind enough to send me a selection of poems to consider and Thinning<\/em> immediately “spoke” to me.<\/p>\n

I like its poetic form and also its universality—a commonality of human experience that I instantly recognised at a “gut” level. Thinning<\/em> also made me appreciate the versatility and depth of Tim’s poetry yet again, especially when juxtaposed with other recent featured poems such as Shetland Ponies, Haast Beach<\/em>, (on the Tuesday Poem Hub on August 16<\/a>),\u00a0 Men at Sea<\/em><\/a>, and happened to meet<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Tim is currently on a book launch tour for Men Briefly Explained <\/em><\/strong>that will see him appearing in Dunedin tonight, at the Circadian Rhythm Cafe\u0301, 72 St Andrew Street, 8pm<\/span>,and Christchurch tomorrow night at the Christchurch Polytechnic Students Association hall, 5 Madras Street, at 5.30 pm<\/span>.<\/p>\n

For more book tour details and more on Men Briefly Explained<\/em>, see http:\/\/timjonesbooks.blogspot.com\/p\/men-briefly-explained.html<\/a><\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

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

Tim Jones<\/a> is a poet and author of both science fiction and literary fiction who was awarded the New Zealand Society of Authors Janet Frame Memorial Award for Literature <\/em>in 2010. Ti’s previous collections are Boat People<\/strong><\/em> (2002) and (the very topical!) The All Blacks’ Kitchen Garden <\/strong><\/em>(HeadworX, 2007). Among his recent books are short story collection Transported<\/em><\/strong> (Vintage, 2008) and poetry anthology Voyagers: Science Fiction Poetry from New Zealand<\/em><\/strong> (Interactive Press, 2009), co-edited with Mark Pirie<\/a>. Voyagers<\/em><\/strong> won the \u201cBest Collected Work\u201d category in the 2010 Sir Julius Vogel Awards.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

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

Thinning We age in birthdays and anniversaries, gatherings of welcome and farewell. “You’re looking good,” we say, despite receding hairlines, bellies rounding by the year – too little exercise, too much time spent in front of screens. Babies are now children; children, amazingly, teens, embarked on their own, mysterious journeys. With offspring pairing up and […]<\/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-9221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9221","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=9221"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9232,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9221\/revisions\/9232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}