Ricketts loves playing with the classical and pointing at something strange and exciting.
Ricketts teaches English literature and creative writing at Victoria University. He is a prolific writer. One of his recent books was Strange Meetings: the Poets of the Great War. This was a touching series of chapters on meetings with important war poets. In his poems Ricketts brings forth a variety of styles and voices - often witty and satirical, at times lyrically spare. He knows about form and technique. Ricketts keeps his poems tight and neat.
Just Then has three songs written in Hong Kong and a 1979 poem about a war poet. Ricketts delves into his early experiences, basks in the pleasure of reading, writing and cricket. He comments on losing friends.
I love his reply to his old poem "Early Settlers Museum, Dunedin, with Tom":
... And for once everything fits:
the bright morning, the lolloping dogs,
the sweet chocolate smells
from the Cadbury factory,
autumn staining the hills.
"Carlton, Edinburgh, with Tommy, 2010":
Twenty years ago, I pushed you down
and back up Great King Street.
Autumn stained the Otago hills.
Today I strain to keep at your heels,
slipsliding up Carlton.
Snow bleaches the Crags, Arthur's Seat.
Ricketts' weary conviction glimmers with humour and hope. He has true depth and magic comes from the subtle and not-so-subtle references that filter through his poems. There is not a dud among these 46 new poems.
Like his career, Ricketts is full of interesting quirks. Sometimes he can be a little too sullen. Think Sam Hunt with a pounding hangover. No-one likes their poems brittle, superficial and soulless.
Just Then is smart, smooth, slick and spell-binding. Grab this little book.
The Cheese and Onion Sandwich and other New Zealand Icons is her seventh book of poems. She boasts a New Zealand mother and an Australian father, one foot on either side of the ditch. She has written about difficult topics in the past: disease and death. This time around Plumb is having a laugh. "/ They laugh ha ha he he/" in "home". Crown Lynn, Frank Sargeson, Wellington, scratchies, sheep, whitebait and youth hostels all get a mention. This latest collection is like a tiny beam of light: weightless and concentrated with direction. The sense of celebration is addictive as Plumb offers up lots of sweet, soft touches and bits of dazzle, too.
"The cheese and onion sandwich":
the cheese in this one is too lumpy/ in the best cheese and
onion sandwich the mixture should be blended smoothly/ the way
it used to be when made by Valmai/ at the Golden Crust Caf
that was once in the main street of Dunedin/ their
understanding of the cheese and onion sandwich was intense/
all-knowledgeable/ and with more cheese
Plumb knows how to highlight the fantastic and the miraculous in everyday experience. The Cheese and Onion Sandwich is its own little creature and it comes with plenty of virtuosity and flair.
Only 39 poems - many are filled with beauty, even if this beauty sometimes appears in a bit of a hurry. She has perspective and more than a glimpse of kiwiana thrown in. Plumb sounds healed, not only in her head but also in her heart.
... When she fell in love
with the projectionist
her life became a film.
Climbing the steps slow
and sultry she slid
into his room. They were
reel to reel, breath
to breath, body to body.
In the third drawer down
She hid his photo for 40 years
under a pile of jerseys.
A black and white flicker
of time on a silent screen.
Powell is savvy enough to take the Mickey when she is verging on the sanctimonious. Living in Dunedin, Powell can just as much be a sensitive poet as a raggedy-assed woman looking for trouble.
... The War Memorial Park bathed in fog & dark.
Ghost-poles straight as the crosses of Calvary
quiet as a burnt-out block of bush,
faint moon-haze above a taxi stand.
You slide through the stone columns & iron gates
hoping not to twist an ankle,
& you get back on the wrong bus ...
Journey to the Far South is a bit of a cleaning out of poems hanging around. Olds sings the Dundas St blues from 1984 and returns to Seacliff with another couple of thoughts from 1986. This book is a little sprint towards meticulous sparkle and deep feeling. Olds does seem to have a thing about pies.
McLean is full of passion and vision. He certainly has his own voice.
Fair death is evident. Abide
and honour men who fought and died
at Gallipoli in World War I.
An eponymous pier was erected.
Quite recently it was inspected -
it's now deemed safe to walk upon.
A Grave Yard By the Sea is a good effort. When McLean learns how to cut the crap, things will only get better for him. He wanders off at times.
- Written by Hamesh Wyatt.
