Two boys on roller blades
They've set up a goal:
some wooden struts
wedged in the gutter, strapped
to a power pole
and a sheet of black vinyl salvaged
trimmed, for this.
They flow across the road
up and back and around
loose, lazy
as if it's the camber of the road
that lifts them, drops and lifts
till a neighbour's car in careful low gear
washes the boys to the side
in a cross-current.
Hockey sticks dangle, wait.
Then wrists flex; they check,
snag the pockmarked puck, flick it
whack it, gulp into the goal.
Circling again, no words
just eyebrows.
I am just back from a big trip to New Zealand to launch
the three new
Hoopla
books from Mākaro
Press. (And a
few gigs on the side with my
good mate Coral Carter who came along for the ride.) I
think I can safely
say that all three Hoopla poets (me, Bryan Walpert and
Carolyn McCurdie,
plus our sidekick Coral, plus of course our esteemed
editor and publisher
Mary McCallum) had a great time. But then - and how we
were
staggered and almost on the point of dumbfoundery - our
books entered
the NZ bestseller list. First Bryan, then Carolyn, then
me. Then Carolyn's
book shot to number one! Well knock me sideways and
tickle me with a
feather!
Cheers to Mākaro
Press and all who sail in her.
It was hard to pick just one poem from Carolyn's debut
book. It is so fresh
and well grounded, so charming and perspicacious. But I
went for the lads
and their hockey sticks, for reasons that will be
obvious.
Carolyn
McCurdie is a Dunedin writer who has worked as a teacher
and
librarian. Winner of the New Zealand Poetry Society’s International
Poetry
Competition and the Lilian Ida Smith Award, she is a long-time
contributor
to New Zealand’s leading poetry journals, and has published
an
ebook of short stories and a children’s fantasy novel. Carolyn is a
member
of the
Octagon Poets Collective and helps to organise live poetry events in
Dunedin.
http://www.makaropress.co.nz/makaro-books/the-hoopla-series/
Somehow I lost my copy ... the book and a pair of black socks ... guess will have to buy another and maintain poetry in the best sellers list.
ReplyDeleteGreat poem--really like the " They flow across the road//up and back and around//loose, lazy"
ReplyDeleteIt's great to have poems in the bestseller list. I think that the design here is so important and these are beautiful books--I'm collecting the lot. I think design is a great reason to buy any book. I like the way the books appear in trios; I read Bryan's book, now I'm on Carolyn's and you're next up. They all sit neatly on one of my shelves.
ReplyDelete