Poetry Nz 35

Description

ISBN: POETNZ35
Title: Poetry Nz 35
Author: POETRY NEW ZEALAND

Issue 35 introduces the poetry of three New Caledonian poets, featuring the work of Nicolas Kurtovitch.

I think there are two types of poems in terms of one’s first reaction to reading as an editor. There are those that immediately demand a response and which in some cases keep that response. There are others which, upon re-reading, gather interest. The latter are intriguing and, often, the best.

There are also trends in what people write about. A while back, if a poet wrote about colour, it seemed always to be blue; recently it’s been white. But for an editor it means that if you’ve already got a couple of good pieces ‘about’ white, you’re unlikely to take any more. There were those times when almost everyone seemed to be writing about their fathers, thankfully that has passed – writing about children is probably more common at present. Political poems and what it means to be Pakeha come in spates as do works on the settler era. Recently, American poets have offered perspectives on Britain (though I’ve gone for an English example in this issue). Aspects of personal relationships appear in many forms – but one only wants a range of perspectives. The phenomenon I’ve described shows the limitations of subject matter as the controlling drive in poetry.

Then there is the consideration that comes to us through linguistic theory that our expression is restricted by the structures of language itself. Practitioners may want to wrestle out of that. I’m not sure we always, or even often, achieve such a feat, but we try.

And there is the poem that seems to break the rules – the rules of practice, fashion, even the perspectives that have evolved because of the factors mentioned above – the poem that suddenly takes a hackneyed idea in a new direction. It’s easy to miss those, so we work hard not to miss them.

In this issue, Jack Ross considers the apposite question of what comes after a postmodern aesthetic. Despite his modesty, there are some answers. They concern a particular trend, and he acknowledges that there may be others which are just as relevant.

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