THE TUESDAY POEM TAKES OFF

It's a movement! The Tuesday Poem begun on writer Mary McCallum's blog O Audacious Book  three weeks ago has been picked up by half a dozen of NZ's blogging poets resulting in the publication of a host of Tuesday Poems online today. And each one has been  linked to the other Tuesday Poems creating, what Mary calls, a kind of online 'open mike session' or an informal blog poetry journal.  

Mary has published two of her own poems  on past Tuesdays, but today is hosting an Easter poem by fellow Wellingtonian Maggie Rainey-Smith. The other poets participating so far are Tim Jones  , Harvey Molloy , Claire Beynon , Helen Rickerby , and Fifi Colston . South Island blogger  Paradoxical Cat is promising to join in, too, and - as Mary points out - you'll always find a poem on NZ Poet Laureate Cilla McQueen's blog. She's writing an astonishing poem in instalments  called Serial using images from the National Library. 

Mary says she's thrilled by the way the blogging poets have embraced the idea of the Tuesday Poem which she sees as a way to get NZ poetry 'out there' and give poets a new readership and, for some, it's a way to build confidence with their own work. 'I used to write a lot of poetry, but put that on the back-burner when I started writing novels,' she says. 'The Tuesday Poem for me is a way of getting my work 'published' and read. I've already had some invaluable feedback from my lovely blog readers on the first two - with one sharing the poem 'missed' with her creative writing class! - and it's given me the confidence to continue putting them out there.' 

Mary says will continue to post her own poems and poems by others in the coming weeks, and will continue to encourage blogging poets to do the same. Some poets have already indicated they'd prefer to only post monthly, which she says is fine by her, and she'd welcome other poets who want to join the 'journal' even if it's just for a week. Just email her on marymac21ATgmail.com and she will link to your Tuesday Poem and send you the links to other poets. All you have to do is post the poem on a tuesday morning (as early as possible) and put 'Tuesday Poem' in the title.