Robert Gray: NZ Poetry Day--'Read Until You Find a Poem that Works for You'

National Poetry Day is an opportunity for people to connect with poetry and each other. Like many such specially-focused days or weeks or months, we could say 'Hey! Every day should be Poetry Day!' For some people, it is. But for most of us, National Poetry Day is an opportunity to get together and read/ hear/ write/ read poetry at events and in our private spaces.... My call for action is to read poetry out loud, as loud or as quiet as works for you: read your own to someone else, or read someone else's to yourself! Read until you find a poem that works for you--it might shock, encourage, inspire, nudge or entertain you.

--Poet Alice Te Punga Somerville in the Big Idea

I was on vacation last week, but I still checked in to celebrate New Zealand National Poetry Day on Friday. It's an "event extravaganza" designed to soothe, delight and uplift "poetry lovers and the public alike. Poetry popped up in churches, bookshops, libraries and out on the streets. Poetry through music, open mic, book launches, poetry walks and so much more took place!" #NZPoetryDay is governed by the New Zealand Book Awards Trust Te Ohu Tiaki i Te Rau Hiringa, and supported by Phantom Billstickers. 

Chris Tse at DC SCORES.

NZ poet laureate Chris Tse's National Poetry Day blog post included a moving recollection of his recent experiences in Washington, D.C., where he was part a cohort of Asian diaspora writers from Aotearoa and Australia whose main purpose for the trip "was a two-week residency to work on our individual projects and to meet with key people in the Asian American writing community to share knowledge and ideas about how we can empower and create opportunities for our own communities. We also lined up some last-minute events while we were in town, including performances at the famous Busboys & Poets, and the first-ever open mic at the Kennedy Center." 

Tse noted that at one point during the visit, he found himself "in a school gymnasium thrumming with the laughter of 40 kids and adults chasing a soccer ball across the polished floor. The kids were 'poet-athletes' taking part in a summer camp program with DC SCORES, a not-for-profit organization that uses soccer and poetry to 'give kids the confidence and skills to succeed on the playing field, in the classroom, and in life'. My indoor soccer days were far behind me, so I was there in my capacity as Aotearoa's Poet Laureate.

"Despite my initial skepticism about soccer and poetry being natural bedfellows, I was instantly won over by the kids' enthusiasm for both. After sharing some of my poems, I fielded some creative and incisive questions from the kids. What I love about moments like this is that it strengthens my own relationship to poetry, and reminds me how powerful it can be to connect with others through the power of storytelling and poetry.... If there's one thing I want to achieve before my term is over, it's to shift perceptions about poetry being 'difficult' to help people find new ways into enjoying it. We're surrounded by poetry, from the way shadows scatter themselves on the pavement to someone being moved to speak out about injustice."

At Unity Books

Across New Zealand last Friday, indie booksellers were also celebrating #NZPoetryDay, including Unity Books, Wellington ("HAPPY @nzpoetryday. A day to celebrate all things poetry."); SchrÓ§dinger's Books, Petone; Wardini Books, Havelock North; Time Out Bookstore, Auckland; Books & Co., Otaki; Good Books, Wellington; and Petronella's Bookstore, Lake Tekapo.

Scorpio Books, Christchurch noted: "A very happy National Poetry Day to you! Aotearoa is lucky to have a glorious array of poets writing all kinds of challenging, soothing, beautiful work and it's a great day to discover some of them! You could stop to read a poem on a bollard; visit us and ask us for a recommendation; or even catch some live poetry readings at WORD Christchurch events (the books pictured here are all by poets featuring in the festival!)."

Other highlights included St Heliers Community Library "chalking poems outside the library (with a little help from tiny passersby!)" and Poetryinmotion's idea to send "packets of Pocket Poetry to southern libraries as an addition to their celebrations. Today I received a wonderful e-mail from Owaka with a photo of my pocket poetry cards in a range of denim pockets." The National Library of New Zealand's Poetry Machine landed at Wellington Airport. 

During my own quiet #NZPoetryDay celebration in upstate New York, I was reading and listening to Alice Te Punga Somerville, including the poem "Waitangi Day 2019," which ends like this:

Despite everything, I smiled to myself: I had decided to write a Waitangi poem today.
I'd been thinking about metaphors while I sped through acres of literal violence: 

So many Waikato killing fields, farms on stolen land drenched with Banaban bones, past the faded sign for a café called Cook's landing.  

And then the poem walked out to the car 
as soon as it heard me pull in the driveway.

"Another National Poetry Day has come and gone," Chris Tse posted on Facebook. "What a rush! I spent the day at the National Library where I was joined by Sara from Motif Poetry and Liam from Wellington Zinefest. Together, we introduced students to slam, erasure poetry, and zine-making. I was buzzing after hearing the students share poems that they'd written in just half an hour--there is so much talent out there!"

--Robert Gray, contributing editor
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