Elizabeth Caffin talking at anniversary of Allen Curnow's birth

We’re here to celebrate the centenary of the birth of our greatest poet Allen Curnow with a special viewing of Early Days Yet, Shirley Horrock's marvellous film about him. The next issue of Landfall also remembers Allen. So does the latest issue of Sport with poems by Bill Manhire, Vincent O’Sullivan and James Brown. It also includes a tantalising excerpt from Terry Sturm’s forthcoming biography, which Linda Cassells is preparing for publication. This will be followed in due course by a full collected poems. The timing today is perfect because it is also nearly ten years since Allen died.

We are particularly fortunate to have this film because it was made in the last 18 months of his life, though his alert and sprightly demeanour reveals no sign whatsoever of age or infirmity. Many of you will remember the first screening in the presence of the poet a decade ago and not long after the publication of his last book and the award of his last prize.

We are also fortunate that it was Shirley Horrocks who made this film. Shirley has under always difficult circumstances and over many years been making a brilliant study of what it means to be an artist in this country. Here she presents a supremely verbal artist in the supremely visual medium of film. Allen Curnow’s poetry is dense, complex and sophisticated so this is no easy task. Allen once told me he became a poet because that was the only thing he was good at; but he was very good. Shirley’s respect for the poetry is paramount so that Allen’s words are what we take away with us; but she gets there through her sympathy for the person, who is vividly present. The poet reading his own work is at the centre of the film; but in an apparently effortless and self-effacing way she also uses comments from other poets, historic photos, glimpses of manuscripts and much more. Her scrupulous attention to detail, along with Leon Narbey’s stunning photography and the music of Lilburn and Jonathan Besser all make this a perceptive as well as pleasurable film. To my mind the ten years that have elapsed since its making have only enhanced its value.

There are a number of poignant moments in this screening tonight. There are memories to recall, and disasters to contemplate. You are aware all the time of the poet’s struggle to grasp in words the fleeting, unstable nature of reality. Here the perilous human condition is caught for a moment, or for all time, in the poet’s lines, an incorrigible music. Let us listen then, and let us watch.

Allen Curnow photo above -  Marti Friedlander.

Footnote:
DVDs of the film are available for sale from Shirley Horrocks – s.horrocks@xtra.co.nz