Do so

Me again. Have just finished making the pamphlet going up for auction here. Huge thanks to Keris.

And here it is, paint still wet at time of photographing - a totally one off collection of thirty poems, never before seen (ten of them written in the last three days).

Features:

 first read of 30 original poems,

glow-in-the-dark presentation envelope,

authentic Japanese newspaper dust jacket, 

hand beaded page marker,

hand painted front cover,

secret hidden, removable, original art;

all by me, for you, for Japan.

Auction ends this Sunday.

Dozo

If you can write, paint, edit, proof read, make art and much more, you can for Japan here. And here. Please do.

In sight

As I've mentioned before, my husband stutters. It's difficult to argue with a person when you have to politely wait for them to get their retort out. I have also witnessed other people's reactions (non-stutterers) to my husband, such as the parents who ushered their child away from our son at the playground, the man in the spec shop who couldn't look at him, and the interviewer who said he couldn't give my husband a job because the job was communications based (it was an IT job - communication would have been primarily email), and these, and other moments, led me to write over a hundred poems about or connected to stuttering in some way.


I am extremely proud to have two of these poems, "Gecko" and "Fat Tongue" in Air Flow, the magazine for the New Zealand Speak Easy Association for people who stutter. Huge thanks to Bruce Whitfield, and for a very generous and appreciated hand of friendship.


Poems are on page 4 but please take some time to read the magazine, it's insightful and goes to show what excellent communicators, high achievers, and generally people you want on your team, stutterers are. And if there are any stutterers in Auckland, please get in touch!

A second

Started this painting in October 2010 - in progress.

Update: https://dellasays.wordpress.com/2011/03/12/authors-for-japan-can-you-help/


Many thanks to Merc for dropping this link in the comments thread. If any authors out there can donate books/writing/critiquing services, here's how.



Got back from the fundraiser for Christchurch last night to a phonecall with a tsunami warning and the news there'd been a massive earthquake in Japan. My heart goes out to everyone there. It hardly feels real, only seems a second since Christchurch, and I've spent the greater portion of today feeling utterly at a loss for what to say: inactive sums me up. It was the second tsunami warning we've had since we moved here in 2007. They scare me. I came here from about as far inland as you can get in the UK - tsunamis were not a phenomenon we were concerned with in our daily lives. To experience one must be unimaginably frightening. Already, the loss Japan has suffered is beyond my comprehension.

I opened blogger to write this post and then couldn't type, so after a brief walk around the house, returned to find the following message typed:

hi i love you mummy

Dig in

I sketched my mother some years back, the drawing has been the foundation of many other pieces and experiments including this.

I seem to be on repeat - feel free to visit My Mother's Land: it's about digging, oh and stinging.

Think I've got VIP membership now, at the Camel Saloon - else escorted off the premises for loitering! Thank you, Russell Streur.

In portent

A few things:

Welcome back, Andrea at Rainbow Notebook.

My poem "Auckland" made it over The Second Hump and was chosen among Russell Streur's favourites of February.

Thirdly, February 22nd 2011 will be a day New Zealanders remember forever, I know I will. Like many poets here in NZ, and the world, no doubt, I have been moved to write several pieces about Christchurch, however, I didn't feel it was my place to post them and wasn't even sure I should voice them at all. Perhaps a sense of guilt, or a feeling of voyeurism - being so close yet privileged and distant altogether. But having spoken to a few writing friends I have been convinced I should let them be read. Therefore, when Russell Streur asked if I'd like to submit anything to a forthcoming special edition of women's poetry I sent along a few poems including a piece I'd written about Christchurch Cathedral. You can read it now over at Camel Saloon here.

My sincere thanks to Russell.