The Tuesday Poem

Secret Santa


The Tuesday Poem for Christmas week is by popular New Zealand poet James Brown - he of the bicycle.
The poem begins 'You have to work./ And mostly it isn't poetry./ The big question is always why...'

The poem is selected by Sarah Jane Barnett who says that James is great live and that this poem is one of her favourites, giving her the 'same satisfaction as seeing him read.' It is in his collection 'The Year of the Bicycle' (VUP 2006).

Sarah has also organised the 30 Tuesday Poets from NZ, Australia, the UK and the US - from Harvey McQueen in NZ to Jennifer Compton in Australia to Melissa Green in the US to Kathleen Jones in the UK, and many more besides - into Secret Santa pairings, where the poets post poems by each other. She says: We want to celebrate what interests us as writers, and our own voices. We also want to celebrate the Tuesday Poem which provides one more way to fit poetry into our lives.
So check out the different blogs to see ones from our “shelf.” If “there's something / you want to hear, / you can sing it / yourself.”

The paired poems are indeed a remarkable celebration of a bunch of remarkable poets as Tuesday Poem goes from strength to strength. There is a Christmas theme to some, and some are about writing poetry, others are simply a gift to the poet and the reader. Which is Tuesday Poem really. Pop by - give yourself an early Christmas.