The stuff of poetry

Got Sharon Olds' book The Father; Poems (1999, Alfred A. Knopf, New York) from the library, read it in one go, some of it made me cry.

Here are some of my recently acquired insights into poetry:

- poetry is not only about daffodils.
- poetry does not have to be obscure.
- some of the best poetry packs a wallop.

Poetry about 'wonderfully observed moments' on its own is good, but not enough. The significant poets have something more to say, like Sharon Olds showing how love takes over as a force greater than her rational, everyday self, in caring for her dying father, despite the fear he inspired in her when she was a child.

This is the second book I've read which is on a given theme: the other is Anne Kennedy's Sing-song, which I'll finish today. The narrative link between the poems creates a greater sense of intimacy with the writer. I go back and re-read...

Writing: I'm working on the Soundwalk set of poems - there may be three, I think. Much encouraged by the groups' approval yesterday.

Viv said that one can buy poetry books cheaply on-line via TradeMe; shall check that, and BookHaven which is Wellington-based and easy to access.

I am out of my routine, it is three in the afternoon, not early morning. Too tired to get up early today. No writing tomorrow, Saturday, but shall be back at it on Sunday morning, after Zen.

Oh, and a friend sent me an article by Helen Ventner about the way Yeats wrote poetry. Started with prose and then polished and polished, reading it out aloud as he went, with a particular intonation. Comparison of poetry to music, the text up-front and other stuff happening underneath.

About ignorance and Anne Kennedy

I thought I'd get back to routine, but instead when I got here early this morning (still dark outside), I found an email from Finland which I allowed to distract me and send me happily off in all kinds of other directions.

Petri Liukkonen is the librarian in the small Finnish town of Kuusankoski. He/she writes the biographies on a website entitled Authors' Calendar (see http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi), which I'd quoted in the review of Szymborska's work. I'd emailed a few days ago to say thank you. I had also noticed the absence of two favourite authors from his Nordic Authors list - Bodil Malmsten and Per Pettersen. So I mentioned that too and he/she wrote to say thank you and let me know that they were candidates for the list.
In the email was this wonderful sentence:
"My expertise has always been my ignorance".Have sent an email round the Quotations website to see if anyone has a source.
Did some reading about Petri and the website and discovered that it is famous in Finland - received a prize from a PEN sounding organisation - and overseas - mainly the US - where many universities recommend it as a source for people studying English Lit. And yes, Janet Frame is on the list. Not Frank Sargeson. Or Lloyd Jones for that matter.

Meanwhile have mislaid Billy Collins somewhere, very frustrating, but am reading a Philip Larkins' bio, his poetry which I like more and more, and a book called Sing-Song by Anne Kennedy (Auckland University Press, 2003), which is about her daughters' exczema and the suffering that resulted from it. First time I've read a book of poems this compulsively. Anyone who has ever had a suffering child will respond to it, that I know.