Blackmail Press (& the meaning of "cool")

Just a quick note to say that Issue 33 of Blackmail Press (edited by Doug Poole) has been released and my poem "Working Class" makes an appearance.  Click on the first link for the author index and read away! 

This is a picture of Ernest Hemingway kicking a beer can.  You are right.  This has nothing to do with anything.  But if the sweet clothing style and impressive leg extention, coupled with the serene surroundings isn't your definition of "cool", then my friends, I just don't know what is.

Happy Sunday!

Deconstructed

via

Today I'm sharing the poem that was recently printed in Issue 9 of Potroast.  The theme was diagrams, how to guides, instructions, components etc.  So I decided to write something based around the idea of distorting the "true" meaning of a word by breaking it up and concentrating on the other words embedded with in it, thereby creating something radically different than what was intended or expected.  This was very much an experiment for me, and it has spawned a few new pieces exploring a similar theme.  Here goes...

De-con-struct

An explanation, friend,

                is not

A telling how or why

                but

A former 2D colony,

Lost for scheme, design and strategy

That is now a body politic

With all its bones but buried.

A diagram, therefore,

                is not

a picture, showing

                but

A letter sent to someone suffering

Where stops are small black breaths, for

Ironic font typed names

Behind dull plastic panes

A system, then

                is not

a whole comprised of separate parts

                but

A shaft of growth, diseased

No budding colour at the apex

Just the start of inconvenience

A growth toward the end of ends.

A method, it follows,

                is not

A numbered process or procedure

                but

One’s harsh demise abbreviated

By chemical conspiracies

The true end product of its excess

And networked faulty compass Norths.

So therefore,

then,

it follows,

friend,

That context

                is not

Meaning

                can’t be

Message, sense or point,

                but rather,

Lying, cheating phrases,

With manipulative tendencies,

Absolving themselves of all

literary

Host responsibility.

Copyright: Kirsty Helen, 2012.

Music by Moyenah

Hey friends! I can now share with you a little project I completed a couple of weeks ago.  I was fortunate enough to meet and interview up and coming Christchurch musician Mona Nourozi (aka Moyenah) for Canta's* New Zealand Music Month issue.  I had a great time chatting to Mona about her musical influences and aspirations, as well as her studies in psychology and philosophy and her other artistic pursuits (she is one talented lady...).  You can have a little look at the piece I wrote here.  She even let me take some snaps of her on the campus grounds, and kept a smile on her face as I requested that she prance around in the autumn leaves and look happy despite the freezing cold.  Thanks, Mona!  You can check out her Facebook page here.

*Canta is the University of Canterbury's Weekly Student Magazine.

Potroast: Issue 9

I recently submitted a poem to the editors of Potroast - an Auckland based experimental art and writing zine - and last week they accepted it for publication for the upcoming issue.  This is somewhat of a big deal for me, considering that the last poems I wrote were of the "teen-angst, life is excruciating, nobody likes me" kind.  (Cringe.  I've got them all somewhere, hidden.  I hope.) The poem is called "De-Con-Struct", and was inspired by Issue 9's theme: instructions, diagrams, how-to guides etc.  It reads similarly to a cryptic crossword, and each stanza breaks one word up into separate parts, suggesting an alternative meaning.  I am working on further pieces which explore this theme at the moment.

I'll post the link to the on-line version once it is published next month.  In the meantime, you can access previous issues of Potroast here and take a look at the list of contributors for Issue 9.

I'll also post the poem here, I'm just waiting until it's officially "in print" first.  Small steps, exciting times.