Tara McLeod: 8 Poems by New Zealand Poets (2019)

8 Poems by New Zealand Poets 2019
Designed by Tara McLeod (Auckland: The Pear Tree Press, 2019)

Yesterday I received my two author's copies of Tara McLeod's beautiful new chapbook 8 Poems by New Zealand Poets. It's the fourth in the series, earlier editions having appeared in 2014, 2017 and 2018:

8 Poems 2018

Eight Poems 2017

8 Poems 2014

Each book is billed as containing "8 new poems from contemporary NZ poets." It's quite a stellar list. To date the following poets have appeared in the series:

2014:

1. Riemke Ensing
2. Brian Gregory
3. David Gregory
4. Judith Haswell
5. David Howard
6. Peter Olds
7. Paul Thompson
8. Denys Trussell

2017:

9. Riemke Ensing
10. Brian Gregory
11. Judith Haswell
12. John Mitchell
13. Michael O’Leary
14. Rachel Scott
15. Paul Thompson
16. Denys Trussell

2018:

17. Glenn Colquhoun
18. Riemke Ensing
19. Brian Gregory
20. Rachel McAlpine
21. Daryl McLaren
22. Karl Stead
23. Paul Thompson
24. Richard von Sturmer

Here's my own poem, 'The Oceanic Feeling,' from the latest volume:

And here's a list, in order, of all the poets included:

1. Michele Leggott
2. Elizabeth Brooke-Carr
3. Alan Loney
4. Michael Harlow
5. Linda Gill
6. Jack Ross
7. Gregory O'Brien
8. Paula Green
9. Riemke Ensing

Pretty good company to keep, I'm sure you'll agree!

I guess what's most striking about the books is the inventiveness with which Tara has come up with a different design for every poem: with bold colours and variegated font choices to complement the mood of each of them.

I couldn't be happier with the Pasifika look of the title and layout of my own poem, and I'm sure all the other poets feel the same. When Tara showed me a proof of what he had in mind in his studio in Orewa, I was quite blown away. For someone as addicted as I am to handprinting and poetry posters and all those fascinating surrounds to the classic slim volume of verse, it was manna in the wilderness.

I won't disguise the fact: the books are expensive. If you live near a library with a good rare books or special collections section - and which of us doesn't? - you should be able to get your hands on a copy, though (albeit, probably, with white gloves on).

It's always a thrill to collaborate with a real artist, and it's nice to know that Tara is beginning to get the credit he deserves, with a major new book - Tara McLeod: A Typographer's Journey - on his work as a designer, printer and sculptor due out from Lesley Smith's Katsura Press later this year.

The Pear Tree Press

Oh, and why are there nine poets rather than eight in this particular volume? Through an act of kindness on the artist's part, actually. Elizabeth Brooke-Carr was going to be included in the 2020 volume, but the state of her health made it seem increasingly likely that she'd never live to see it.

Accordingly, Riemke Ensing offered to bow out to give space for Elizabeth in this book instead. Touched by this gesture, Tara decided to include Riemke's poem anyway - there's a note explaining the circumstances beside it.

Elizabeth Brooke-Carr died in her Dunedin home on the 3rd of September, 2019. I don't know if she was able to see her poem in print before she died, but at least the rest of us can.

Entitled 'All that remains is pressed flat,' it's a very moving account of a funeral. Was it Harold Bloom who remarked that elegy was the mode in which poets almost always succeed?

Tara McLeod

Pania Press Giveaway!

Bronwyn is inviting people to enter a giveaway competition over at her blog Mosehouse Studio. All you have to do is leave a comment on her latest post by this Friday (24th September).

The prize is a copy of Pania Press's new publication: Michele Leggott's poetry chapbook Northland, available in a numbered, limited edition of seventy-five copies.

Go on! What do you have to lose? Alternatively, you could buy the book from the Pania site for $55, or (as usual) from Parsons Bookshop in Auckland.

I suspect this book will become a collector's item. How could it not? Once we've sold those sixty-odd copies, we don't plan to print any more.

I love chapbooks

The Return of the Vanishing New Zealander.
Dunedin: Kilmog Press, 2009. 20 pp.

There's something distinctly satisfying about a chapbook. They're so bite-sized, so approachable. I think a lot of people who feel daunted by a full-length, buttoned-up slim volume of verse (let along a Collected - or even Selected - Poems) feel somehow reassured by the lack of fanfare accompanying a self-confessed poetry pamphlet.

Design, too. There's more of a sense of genuine collaboration about chapbooks - book-designers choosing a text more for their own purposes than to serve some author's plan for world domination.

Dean Havard at Kilmog Press has been making a name for himself for his robust sense of design and unflagging industry. I'm not sure just how many books he's brought out to date, but it must be quite a few. He's published poetry books by Jeanne Bernhardt, Peter Olds, Bob Orr, Mark Pirie, Michael Steven - in some cases more than one by the same author - but his list also includes art catalogues and even an edition of the (so-called) Lost Journal of Edward Jerningham Wakefield!

A website is coming soon, apparently, so we'll soon be able to see a list of all his publications to date (though I gather that many of them have sold out already, so you'll have to be in fast). In the meantime, there's also a blog that you can visit.

In the meantime, the books are available from Parsons in Wellesley Street, or directly from the publisher (Kilmog Press, PO Box 1562, Dunedin). They retail for $35.

Here's the sample poem from my own book which Dean put up on Facebook (which enables me to claim a lack of egotism in reproducing it). It comes from the poem "Journey to the West":

III – Countdown

Is it high?
It touches heaven.
Deep?
It reaches hell.

White clouds surround the mountain
black mists swim
red-blushing plums / jade bamboo
dark-green cypresses / blue pines
_____________________________

Ten-mile pavilion: no travellers leave
nine-faced heaven: stars have set
on eight harbours: boats are docked
in seven thousand cities: gates shut
six palaces: officials gone
five departments: ledgers closed
four seas: fishing lines sink
three rivers: waves subside
two towers: bells resound
one moon lights earth and sky