Tuesday Poem:
'Underground' by Jac Jenkins
This week, the Tuesday
Poem blog features the winning poem from the 2013 Takahē poetry
competition. We're pleased to see Jac
Jenkins' poem 'Underground' on the TP site, and we're certain
readers will see why it won top honours in last year's competition.
It's a
powerful poem that Jenkins dedicates to Christine de Pizan --
Italian/French poet, writer and keen observer of court life, history and
gender from the early modern period. I recall teaching de Pizan's The
Book of the City of Ladies to first year university students when I
taught European history, and I was so pleased when I read Jenkins' poem --
seeing how a 21st century poet from Northland compacts into a beautifully
constructed set of verses such strong images of seasons and change. It's a
textured poem that will stick with you.
Tuesday Poem is a New Zealand
initiative founded by Wellington writer and publisher Mary McCallum and Dunedin
artist and writer Claire Beynon. The Tuesday Poem collective is a group of 30
poets from around the English-speaking world who 'gather' weekly to share and
celebrate poetry -- by themselves and poets they admire.
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