Radio NZ ran a cool little comp for National Poetry Day recently. They give you six random words and you have to write a poem no longer than six lines using all the words. Easy except some of the words don't quite fit together, but it's a great challenge. We ended up doing the words from the last three years of competitions and the good news is - it get's easier as you practice! We were too late to submit these but we had fun! 

2021 Word List - Cloud, Sound, Orange, Clear, Shark, Break

Cloud break shows orange

Rays of sunshine

I can hear the sound of a shark 

Thrashing through the clear waters below

The shark breaks water

And reaches up to the sunlight.

- Gail Palmer

WHAT WAS THAT?
Skittering sounds, like orange pips skating on shark skin,
break clearly onto a cloud-free beach

- Kate Jenkins

2020 Word List - High, Still, Stick, Train, Can, If

If the train can stick to its schedule

We can be there by high noon.

If the train is slow we will still

Get there some time.

If the train stops altogether

We will be left high and dry.

- Gail Palmer

HABIT
We stick to the same train
but I care not for the high price
If I can I will be still, and stay

- Kate Jenkins

2022 Word List - Melody, String, Wave, Rumble, Tennis, Decision

RANDOM
His sentences bounce like a wanton tennis ball
rumble through, as if on a bass string plucked
            or a long slow wave crawling ashore
They trip on a rock of floundering indecision
Less a melody then an orchestral diffusion

- Kate Jenkins

The rumble of the crowd
The ball hitting the string
A game of tennis
With a wave going around
A final decision has been made
A melody of cheers going at the same time

- Julia Godfrey

Through the Mist

This week we were invited by the Kohukohu Library in the far North of the North Island to enter their poetry competition. What a surprise! So we did. Here are some of the poems created in response to their theme of 'mist' which is something special anywhere - the atmosphere, the mystery, the sense of isolation, perhaps even a spiritual experience? Mist is many things to many people. Enjoy these four poems from our creative writers!

 

FRIEND OR FOE 

Mist
Is it a friend?
Is it a Foe?

To me
Mist is a friend
Because it's very helpful

At night time, if you're up late
Mist will be there to save the day
Why?

Since night time is dark
Especially at midnight
It's the best time for mist to appear

Mist appears in different colours
But is very light
Also big

So if your travelling
Late at night
The mist can guide you home

That is why
I think mist is a friend
Because it always can appear 

In your time of need


- Julia Godfrey

m i s t

Descending stealthily

On valley ridge


Spreading damp white fingers into

Crags and crevasses of

Eroded landscape


Softening pointed caps of

Planted pine


Spreading quietly with

Loud effect


m i s t . . .

- Pauline

MIST

shapes forms

emerge dissolve

ethereal


creatures trees

ridge lines

shapes


mist substance

liquid light

reflected


sunshine moonlight

cold water

upright



- Kate Jenkins

v1a

Kapuka Taumahaka ki Otepoti

- Mt Cargill, Dunedin -

the cloud forest on the hill

soaks up moisture

sets itself for scratch growth

between volcanic boulders

unseen in the blanket of droplets

frequenting the upper slopes

sun fractures and reflections

shine grey or white

chilling rare micro-plants

moulded by this solitary climate

leaflet, moss and lichen

incredible wee shapes peek from

this mist pendent beneath the summit

wilting damp onto farms below

a halo light bright

emerging fading dissolving

- Kate Jenkins

Matariki Poems

 

We've spent a couple of weeks writing about Matariki and what it means for us. We've thought about dawn ceremonies and getting up early, and times when we've being up late under the stars. We've given the word Matariki an acrostic treatment (that is we used each letter as the start of a poem) and we've explored the whakatauki or proverb 'He waka eke noa' to think about our shared purpose. This loosely translates as 'We're all in this together'. Some of this poetry features in a Matariki display in the Artsenta windows along with waka sculptures, poems and paintings. Awesome work!

Meaning full
Attribute
Twinkling gathering of stars
Attending the dawn
Reviewing of year past
Interest in what beckons from the new
Kissing goodbye to creatures passed over
Inward-journey-eyes gaze upward . . .

- Pauline

Mystical
Annual
Tradition,
Atmosphere
Reaching
Inwards,
Knowledge
Increasing

Mum and Dads’ birthdays have recently passed
At the time I missed
Their many little doings
A garden overhaul
Recent newspaper cuttings
Interruptions by phone
Kisses and hugs
In touch

- Kate Jenkins

STAR GAZING AT DAWN (MATARIKI 2022)

One time I rose early
Sleep would not come, Vexation driving it out
A quiet relaxing drive, no traffic on the road, to
A dark mountain blocking out the night
The challenge: to walk, reach the height, watch for dawn
It was a cloudy night

Two times I sat outside the tent
reveling in starlight, cursing my limitation,
What star is that?
Then Alpha Centauri, then Crux, and
the long line to Achernar, telling me South
I know my way

New times; I will rise early
Search the Eastern horizon for the promising stars
Rigel and the Seven Sisters – Puanga and Matariki
        for those who mourn
        the Hope Bringer
        the Gardener
        the Singer of Forest Songs
        the Watcher over Water
        the Team Builders
        the Enthusiast
Then will I draw back to Earth, to Papatūānuku
Begin again, anew

 

- Kate Jenkins

FOR SYDNEY - JULY 2022, 1

Having this water to deal with
each person must / should / could play a part
When Earth moves, or rain doesn’t stop falling
all of us together (he waka eke noa) can practise
kindness, comfort, giving, sharing – as our
attachments to Things wash away in this flood
Endless losses scour our hearts
kindle doubt, fear, horror, amazement and
excruciating shock
Now is the time to clasp tightly
onto the living – friends, pets, neighbours, loved ones, God
allowing Presence to bring a smaller sense of Life

FOR SYDNEY - JULY 2022, 2

Here we are
Everything shaken up
Wondering, why?
Affected, emotional
Knocked out of life
Are we safe?
Each person changed
Known spaces destroyed
Everyone challenged
Nothing will be the same
Ordinary now extraordinary
All we can do is watch

- Kate Jenkins

Today we feature one of our regular writers who has diligently written up the poems she has developed at the Artsenta Writer's Group over the last few months. This writing traverses a range of topics from shadows, exhibitions, and Autumn to the recent Queen's Birthday. All writing is by Kate Jenkins - thanks for sharing with us Kate!

 

* S P A C E *

Standing under the solid stars, brightly twinkling in a black sky.  Who makes their shadows?

On a blacked-out night when sun is down and moon has ebbed, if I stand in the light of only stars will my shadow be beneath my feet or scattered broken all around?

The sounds of Earth impinge and echo, as cars pass and person-walking dogs patter by, but those diffuse light beams, millennia old, are absorbed into the neons and LEDs of 21st Century days, and extinguish.

My soul always reaches up when my head is raised to see those stars.  Broken shards of pain and doubt scatter with my broken shadows, each a cloaking contribution to night.  That black cloak falls off and light-ness lifts my breath, steaming out into the airlessness of space.

EXHIBITION
 
An exhibit hangs, carefully mounted
Aligned to floor, ceiling and wall
A prospect, an incoming breath
Exposed          to view
                        to critique
                        or amusement
                        to confusion
Open to comprehension and incomprehension alike
 
An artist stands, not too close
Ready to speak, to explain, to elucidate
Fearful             of being seen
                        of incomprehensible criticism
                        of mockery
                        or misunderstanding
Hoping for delight, or awe, or just a simple ‘that’s good’

A GLIMPSE OF GREEN

Downed leaves, the rotten, composting, mould-ridden end of last Summer are trampled in the door on my shoes.  Brown, yellow and black they drift absent-mindedly on the wind, not staying at home but congregating in the corners and around the objects of everyday life, like teenagers out on the town for a Friday night.

My garden’s trees are nearly bare now, just a few lifeless stragglers swaying drunkenly on branches, then catching a passing zephyr they drop and mingle, onto my carefully ignored bulb patch.  Its occupants mutter together words of encouragement, sharing visions of Spring life, beauty and replication.  They are the shopkeepers, the place holders.  They will not drift away.  They cannot wait beneath this blanketing protection but drive upwards towards the Winter’ chill to exhibit, eye-catching, a glimpse of green.

DUNEDIN, QUEEN'S BIRTHDAY 
 
Four layers – still not warm
Four layers – now heated up, as
cold morning swings into a hot afternoon
 
Three layers, two,
Our blasting winter sun is
not enjoyed by our Northern friends
Each island, province, city
watching for the signs of warmth
            clearing of grey skies
            the end of the rain, fog,
            and those dull dull clouds
           
But here we take our Holiday
            - Thanks Ma’am -
And wear our cloudless sky
like a blissful flower-trimmed hat
as we race around, enjoying
            Indian Summer, La Nina
            Global Warming
            Dunedin in Winter
 
 

Words for Trees

Dunedin is blessed to have many beautiful trees and the green belt like a wreath around the city hills. Trees are even more significant at this time of year with most of us decorating a special tree for Christmas. But beyond Christmas most of us will have special memories of a particular tree where something happened in it or under it or to it. So trees were the topic this week with the optional challenge of shaping the poem itself.

DECORATION
 
 
                                        *
                                      fold
                                fold  &  fold
                                    &  fold
                          fold  &  fold  &  fold
                   fold  &  fold  &  fold  &  fold
                                fold  &  fold
       fold  &  fold  &  fold  &  fold  &  fold  &  fold
fold  &  fold  &  fold  &  fold  &  fold  &  fold and fold
                     how much do I have to do?
                    So much work; so little result
            The concertina’d squares of blue and red
blue    red    blue    red    blue    red     blue     red    blue
                                clash together
                                - only one foot
                               - now two
                               - nearly three
 
 
Crepe paper crushed by tight little fingers
Impatience rewarded by  l e n g t h e n i n g  b r a i d
Cellotaped ends will stop all that work
un rav e lling
                     where the paper has run out
 
And now the tree!  but no, all must wait for Dad
His carefully placed lights and glass balls
      Not to be Touched by minor hands
No fires here.  He will place the paper length delicately,
balanced, correct, away from HOT bulbs and breakable GLASS

- Kate Jenkins

GOLDEN BELLS

        kowhai
you don’t belong here
yet you   s   d    r
             e     o    o
            n       w     o
             d      n      t
                               s
 
and you  s p r a w l  l a n g u i d l y   across my space
       Spring’s burst of vibrant green growing into long trunks of summer
 
      l
       a
     c
        i
           t
        r
      e
no vertical challenge is accepted;  and
not content to bear just once;
 
                    once                                                      twice
           your golden bells                                   your golden bells
       burnish leafy branchlets                       burnish leafy branchlets
      not enough to joy-fill once                  you have to show off again
and bring midsummer’s golden days      into the cloud and rain of winter

 - Kate Jenkins

PUNGA
 
         still angry
   He brought you down
Your years of growing tall
now               cut
                      down
                      Trunk
                      bisected
                        Annual
                           rings’
                           final
                            year
                               In
                                the
   (water)                 stream
                                 not                 (water)
                                   beside
            (water)              it
                                 Maybe you can
                                     still grow,
                                        devastated
                                          but alive

- Kate Jenkins

MY STAR ADVENTURE

Decorating the Christmas Tree
Was so much fun this year
My sister and her boyfriend
Were finally back home
So I got to decorate the tree with them
It came time to put up the star 

I heard people sometimes lift the youngest up to put the star on 

I accidentally said it out loud 

My sister & her boyfriend suddenly picked me up by the legs 

I was frightened and scared 

Mum gave me the star 

While I was wobbling up in the air I put the star on 

It was a crazy yet fun adventure 

Putting the star on top of the Christmas tree this year

So be careful of what you say out loud!

- Julia Godfrey

THE TREE THAT CAME DOWN WITH A CRASH!
 
There once was a tree as large as a barge
I climbed up as high as the sky to see where to cut from
I examined it closely up and down, side to side
Should I forget or should I abide?
Was it safe to cut this tree down, or should I leave it and hide?
I climbed down with a frown right down to the ground
How would I begin to cut down this huge huge tree?
There was danger with no harness, but I grabbed the chainsaw

And held on with dear life and kept out of strife
I clung hard to the big branches, cutting them down one by one

Crash, crash, crash, one by one they came down with a smash!
This would be hard earned cash for me and my friend as a guide at my side
I think he wanted to hide out of the way and stay that way till the end of the day
Thank God and hooray! I cut it down to the trunk where there was a bit of gunk

But we worked together and each of us knew we had succeeded and neither had flunked!

- Greg Maynard

 

OUR CHRISTMAS TREE - THE TREE OF THE YEAR

Once there was a family 
who gathered together with glee,
why? to celebrate with their tree
the tree would not walk or talk
but if it could it would say:
"gather all your gifts and cards
stockings, wrap them, label them,
cover them with beautiful paper,
glitter and stickers, with names
with tokens of love and kindness
scratch them, place them on me,
around me, upon me, underneath me
Gather all the children and parents
to share the joy of the baby boy
born in a manger to save all people
and the trees.
 
 - Greg Maynard

Artistic Inspiration

The Artsenta Annual Exhibition was used as a starting point for this weeks writing. We were asked to choose an artwork that spoke to us and to write a poem that encapsulated four tasks: to describe what we can see; to reflect on what the art made us feel; to interpret what the artwork was telling us; and to relate the art work to something in our own life. Some people did four lines for each task creating a structure for their poem in the process, while others just let the inspiration flow. Art is a great place to start writing! 

ON TAKU RUA RURU

Two warmly comforting occupants of the night
                    - side by side-
 a take on Taku Rua Ruru; and a memory roused
 
A painter’s brush of green
Dark and Light, it’s all the same
Feathered owls, two ruru, sit
tinted green in a forest flood of
matching feathers and strangling leaves
    Larger than Life
               Staring, Unblinking
                                     Sightless
For each, a cape of feathers wrapped tight
Claws like forest tendrils twine around
A cruel curving beak like a haughty nose
and the always watching eyes
 
Sleep is now Awake:
You hide among the matching leaves
Watching, staring, silent
I sleep, almost
Time held by the chiming clock
Wrenched awake by your violent screech,
adrenaline bites with your feathered flight
 
- KJ  

A SAD FAIRY

The fairy’s glow has gone
Big grey wings hanging low
A long purpley/pink dress
That goes to her feet

She’s cradled herself on the floor
Her hands against her knees
That are against her chest
With her hair drooping low

Seeing this fairy
Makes me feel sad
And I can’t see her face
Since her head's between her knees

I feel exactly like this fairy
As when I lost someone close to me
I cradled myself in the same position as her
So I could be silent and pour the sadness out
 

- Julia Godfrey

Conflict resolution

Conflict is an inevitable part of life, but it doesn't always need to be bad or unhappy - it can be constructive; we can learn and grow through conflict. This week in our writing roopu (group) we took on the challenge of writing about conflict but to make it easier we focussed first on a conflict between two animals and then followed that up with people. We were asked to write a short story that incorporated some level of conflict and also how it was resolved. Like positive conflict it was challenging but rewarding!

STANDOFF 

Lost in her own world, Rubi rounded the corner and climbed the first step. She heard a low growl. Startled, she looked up and there was Bobbi, huddled up against Rubi’s cat door. Rubi’s hackles rose and she swished her tail angrily. Bobbie had no business sitting there! It was her door, Rubi’s door, and Bobbie did not belong. Rubi expressed her displeasure with a rumbling growl. Bobbie continued to sit there, her way of escape blocked by an angry Rubi. So, Bobbie just held her ground.

Bobbie was hungry and she knew from past experience that Rubi would complain but that she would not come any closer. Just to be sure she emitted a low growl and swiped a warning paw in Rubi’s direction. Rubi did not back away, but she didn’t come any closer either. Both cats gave a low growl and then began to complain loudly. It was a standoff!

The ruckus attracted the attention of the house’s occupant. Time to feed Bobbie. As she opened the door Bobbie made a mad dash to hide in the garden. A human, even one that fed her, was much scarier than Rubi any day. Rubi gave her a parting swipe and then trotted inside through the open door straight to her bed. With Rubi gone, Bobbie came a little closer. She was so hungry. The scary human put some food out for her and then disappeared, closing the door behind her. Now Bobbie felt safe. Time for a meal.

- AMH

CARING & COOPERATION

Jane looked up from her computer as her flatmate blundered in through the front door. She had a fast approaching deadline for her assignment and she needed quiet to concentrate so she could finish it on time. Sally continued to blunder through the room, kicking off her shoes and dropping her bag onto the floor with a thud. She collapsed onto the sofa and muttered, “Phew, what a day I have had. I must tell you all about it.”

Jane felt herself cringe. Once Sally got going there was no stopping her. Maybe distraction would work. “You sound as if a soak in a hot bath is just what the doctor would order. Then we can talk.”

Sally loved a long soak. This should give her time and the quiet she needed to finish on before the deadline. She was so close. But Sally wasn’t interested. She had too much to tell.

Jane tried again. “Why don’t you make us a cup of coffee.”

This time Sally trekked off to the kitchen and Jane tried to refocus on her task. It wasn’t easy with Sally crashing about in the kitchen. The noise was really very disconcerting. But she had to get this done. Even so, she did not want to upset Sally by seeming to brush her off when she so obviously needed to talk. Sally was a good friend and ever so sensitive. And she seemed pretty upset already.

How was she going to handle this? Maybe distraction was not the best way. Maybe she needed to be clear about her own situation. She had to get this done before she cooked dinner and time was ticking away.

Sally brought her coffee to her and then plonked herself down on the sofa. Jane took a deep breath,

“Sally I have an important assignment which I must email in before 8pm tonight. I am not quite finished but I can see that you really need to talk. If we talk now do you think you could cook tea tonight to allow me to get it finished? Everything is prepared and ready to go.”

Sally looked up from her coffee:

“Oh Jane, I am so sorry that I am disturbing you. I just don’t know what to do with myself until I get this off my chest. Of course I can cook dinner.”

Sally smiled. “And I will do my best to cook really quietly.”

Jane and Sally settled in for their talk.

- AMH