It is shaping up to be a busy winter for the South Canterbury Live Poets group with two major events on the horizon.
On July 12, former New Zealand poet laureate David Eggleton (2019-22) will be performing as the special guest poet for the group’s open mic night, which starts at 5pm at the Timaru Town & Country Club.
Eggleton is a well-known performance poet, who grew up in Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland) and resides in Dunedin.
He has had multiple books of poems published and has also released several poetry recordings featuring collaborations with musicians.
Eggleton said music inspired a lot of his writing.
“Growing up, I listened to a lot of rock and pop music, and especially to those artists who seemed to be able to write a kind of poetry with their lyrics. For me writing poems was about freedom of expression, which became more powerful when you used poetry’s craft work and techniques.
“After leaving school I was in various garage bands, and I was the singer and the lyricist and I remember being drawn to social commentary, and when all those influences were combined, I just stuck with it and kept writing.
“I really did enjoy doing that; I enjoyed writing which challenged conventions, I was drawn to oppositional writing in a sense that a lot of what I was doing went against the grain of expectations, but that in turn energised my writing and made it distinctive.”
Sharing work at an open mic night was an important opportunity for any budding poet, he said.
“There’s poetry in everything and it is waiting there to be discovered. True poetry is about communicating the preciousness of existence, flaws and all.
“It does take a knack to finehone that perception and get the best possible words into the best possible order so that you really do get a sense of the world humming and singing and lamenting and cheering, and that is what hearing poetry live at an open mic night at its best creates.”
He was not really interested in the romantic idea or the confessional mode of a poet, but more so in using poetry as social commentary, Eggleton said.
“Perceiving the essential in looking at our people or peoples, and our situations — that is what I am interested in writing about.
“You could call it fresh, bright, irreverent, comic takes on life in New Zild, delivered with zest and a certain amount of irreverence.
“But it is always grounded in the cultural heritage of this archipelago of islands, from Mike Moore’s Moro Bars to John Key’s flag referendum to Jacindamania and the fall-out from that, to Winston Peters leaning rightwards like an old farm dunny in a nor’wester.”
South Canterbury poet Deirdre T. Lavery said the group was excited to have Eggleton join them as the special guest for the night.
“We always have a pretty good crowd turn up. He’s quite innovative and quite radical in a way, probably for Timaru.
“He won’t be everybody’s cup of tea but that’s good. I like people to hear something that maybe gets them out of their comfort zone and makes them feel innovated by hearing somebody who’s really good.”
Plans were also already under way for celebrating National Poetry Day on August 28, she said.
“We’re running a competition which closes on July 5, where people can send their poem in and we will putting the selected ones on to some big posters and then putting them up around town on empty shop windows.
“The theme is South Canterbury, which basically could encompass anything because it’s just where we live. We’re looking at doing about six posters.
“Venture Timaru is going to help pay for it, which is great. We’ll probably put them up a week before August 28. It’s all about enlivening Timaru’s creative literary scene.”
Submissions can be sent to southcanterburylive [email protected]
