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'Further Convictions Pending' – Vincent O'Sullivan (VUP) – I confess I hadn't read much of Vincent O'Sullivan before. I won this in an NZ Book Council giveaway (thanks Book Council!) and am now on a very pleasant voyage of discovery.
Lighter and more fun (but still with its dark side) is The Song of Lunch, about a man who meets up for lunch with a former girlfriend but things don't turn out as he imagined.
'Voyagers: Science Fiction Poetry from New Zealand' (Interactive Press, edited by Mark Pirie and Tom Jones) – well I have to mention Voyagers, seeing as I've got a poem in it. See here for more details and sample poems. Lots of gems in this book. One of my favourites is Vivienne Plumb's The Last Day of the World which begins "That will be the day none of the eggs will cook. There will be strange phenomena" .
'On the Eve of Never Departing' by Richard von Sturmer (Titus Books). Not a poetry book (more of a memoir), but his language is so lyrical and beautiful, I thought I'd sneak it in. There's an account of the launch here: http://readingthemaps.blogspot.com/2009/09/titus-turns-twenty-one.html I remember seeing Richard and his partner performing as the Humanimals in Auckland back in the early eighties and being terribly impressed.
Also not a poetry book per se is Sam Hunt's 'Backroads' (Craig Potton Publishing) which Peter got me for Christmas – again it's a memoir, but with lots of great poems (other people's – like James K Baxter's – as well as his own) and great photos.
So – that was 2009. Here's wishing everyone a poetic 2010!
I've been making jewellery. On Thursday evenings at Inverlochy house in Aro Valley with jeweller Sue Shore. Unfortunately, the course is finished now, but I hope to do more next year. Last week, I made a pair of copper spaceship earrings, and the week before I made silver earrings, heating strips of silver until the surface melted into folds. Polished up in the tumbler, they ended up looking a little like leather, I think. It's been enormous fun – all the hammering and soldering and sawing – a good antidote to sitting in front of a computer all day.
Here are the little ships, floating in space, and celebrating the fact the Voyagers science fiction poetry book made it into the Listener's Top 100 books for the year.