TUESDAY POEM

Tuesday Poem hovers around a theme of those things that are both earth shaking and ordinary, each with a bit of the other. The hub poem by Canadian Nancy Mattson (chosen by Helen Lowe) is Compasses: A Triptych about a woman and a relationship represented by the compass she works with and Donne uses to describe a relationship: 'If they be two, they are two so as stiff twin compasses are two'. The ordinary act of her sewing, the ordinary stuff of her being alive are earth-shakingly wonderful.

Then there's the seismic revelation of breast cancer, dealt with movingly in a suite of newly-published poems by Paula Green. They make their first outing on Helen Heath's blog in the Tuesday Poem blog roll.

Fiona Farrell's poem The Horse is a stunning earthquake poem - a must read from this Christchurch poet - and to be found on Harvey Molloy's blog. Then there are the ordinary extraordinary wonders of spring in Saradha Koirala's A Greening, krill in Claire Beynon's Krill Watching, and Harvey McQueen! Mary McCallum posts on the launch of this poet and educator's new collection of favourite NZ poems, These I Have Loved, and Harvey himself posts one of his own poems read at the launch. The Road, Cormac McCarthy's dystopian novel, is discussed as a prose poem on Sarah Jane Barnett's blog, and, Zireaux looks at The Flight of the Conchords 'Think About It' - a poem? Apparently so. He says:

"Let’s get this straight — I do not care about New Zealand poetry. I’m not sure why anyone would. What matters to me is New Zealand and its depictions in literature, particularly in metaphor, particularly poetic metaphor, particularly the most beautiful and unique of these depictions. But if we’re going to talk seriously about New Zealand poetry (and we are), we need to introduce the most well-known and widely admired Kiwi poets of all time: Jermaine Clement and Bret McKenzie, a.k.a. Flight of the Conchords."

And there are poems going up on Tuesday Poem all the time - the Northern Hemisphere poets are only just beginning to post. Get in there, ride the compass, ride the horse... think about it.