SPORT 36

New Zealand New Writing

Winter 2008

The latest issue of SPORT (is it the biggest yet?) will be in your favourite bookstore on 13 June.

It is chock-a-block with wonderful new writing.

Some wonderful poetry from David Beach (love his Te Aro sequence), Bernadette Hall, Andrew Johnston, Lynn Davidson, Geoff Cochrane and a host of others.

My favourite poem though comes from Wellington-based teacher and poet Saradha Koirala; here it is:

I Once Lived By Myself in a Tree-house

I once lived by myself in a tree-house near a tunnel.

I wove my nest in red and yellow

and lined it with patchwork squares.

Everything was tiny: the teapot, the stove, my spoons,

the corners of used envelopes

I composed notes on for the morning.

Perched above a bus stop, the windows rattled

with the idling number 12.

Engine crescendos threaded through my dreams.

Eventually I sellotaped a cut-out heart to my spare key

and gave it to you.

You kept it in the coin-part of your wallet

and knocked each night on my tiny front door.

Apologies to both poet and publisher for the line gaps within the four verses. I can't figure out how to overcome that.