October 2018 – Tim Jones

I’m very flattered that Saradha Koirala has asked me to launch her third poetry collection Photos of the Sky in Wellington on Monday 5 November. Here are the details of the launch. You’re invited!

What: Wellington launch of Photos of the Sky by Saradha Koirala, published by The Cuba Press.

When: Monday 5 November 2018, 5.30-7.30pm

Where: The Thistle Inn, 3 Mulgrave St, Thorndon, Wellington

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/261164124590533/

I’ve followed and posted about Saradha’s career as a poet and novelist. Her work ticks all the boxes for me: skill, thought, and heart.

Saradha describes Photos of the Sky as follows on her website:

The collection starts with a declaration; ends in realisation. In between is a journey of reaching across the Tasman, shifting to a new home, reaching a place of disquiet and starting again. The full spectrum of emotions brings with it rain, sweat, tears, wildflowers and the promise of snow.

I’m also very happy to support The Cuba Press – a new Wellington press which is really making moves in a range of genres. They are open for submissions until 1 December – check out their submission guidelines.

With Saradha’s permission, here is her poem “Confession, confessed”. This serves as an excellent introduction to Photos of the Sky. I hope you can make it to the launch!

Confession, confessed

I’ve been the secret and the secret-keeper
the one from whom the secret is kept.

I’ve been a curiosity of connections that don’t concern me
the cause and effect of all that is curious.

I’ve been right and I’ve been wronged
I’ve been righteously wrong.

I’ve been a cut-out shape where I used to be seen
and I too have cut fleshy shapes from my life.

I’ve been the problem and the solution
the floating object of insomnia, rage

a presence off limits
that has in turn been there for me.

I’ve been the reason and I’ve been the excuse.
I’ve been falsely accused, rightly refused.

I’ve been the obsession
the obsessed.

I had an alibi.
I am the reason you needed an alibi.

Into our room
clanking and rattling
spinning and whirling
sliding and wheeling
come trolleys
       chairs
       trays
       stretchers
       beds
       drips
       pills
       linen
       basins
       and patients.

Hospitals run
on wheels.

Credit note: This untitled poem by Trish Harris is reproduced by permission of the author from her collection My wide white bed (Landing Press, 2017). For more information and to buy copies of My wide white bed, go to https://landingpress.wordpress.com/upcoming-titles/my-wide-white-bed/ . Books are available from the website and all good bookstores for $22.

Tim says: I would have enjoyed and been moved by the poems in My wide white bed at any time, but it was an especially poignant reading experience for me this year after both my father and I had stints in hospital during 2017 – his, unfortunately, terminal.

My Dad spent the last two weeks of his life in Hutt Hospital, which is the same hospital that provides the closely observed backdrop of Trish’s poems. So I can say from personal experience that what Trish Harris describes in this poem, and the confusing mixture of the personal and the impersonal one experiences as a hospital patient or even as a the visitor of a hospital patient, rings very true to life.

Month: October 2018

Book launch on 5 November in Wellington: Saradha Koirala’s new poetry collection “Photos of the Sky”

Poem of the Month – October: “Into our room”, by Trish Harris