the red room

Last night I went to the launch of the American and New Zealand poetry duets which was held in a cosy room at the Southern Cross Bar. It was launched by Bill Manhire who read snippets of poetry by Walt Whitman and R. A. K. Mason and in both poems the poets offered advice to future writers. Whereas Whitman was encouraging and hopeful, Mason was a little doomesque which I think is a wonderful generalisation about the differences between New Zealand and American poetry. More importantly Bill’s implied link between historical and contemporary poetry made me realise that I need to spend more time looking back.

At the moment I am writing long narrative poems (LNPs) with varied characters – The Holiday (recently published in Sport) is about how the relationship between an older woman and a young man mirrors the relationship between Picasso and Matisse. Marathon Men, my longest poem at twelve pages, is about the unlikely friendship between a garbage man and a wealthy but agoraphobic prosthetic limb painter. At the moment I am writing a long poem about the impact of a transgender revelation between a father and daughter while they set up an orienteering course. What I am wondering is what makes a LNP? How do I define “long” and what differentiates a long poem from an epic poem? What elements make a poem narrative compared to lyrical, conversational or experimental? When does a poem stop being a poem and become a short story?

Writing LNPs was a mostly unconscious choice; the voice of my poems started to lengthened out. When I first started writing, my poems were spare and compact but once I experimented with short stories (which were passable but not publishable), my poetry started to change. As an aside to my doctoral research I want to write an essay about LNPs in New Zealand poetry as a way to inform and place my own work. When I met superstar poet Simon Armitage I asked him if he had any advice for new writers.“Read,” he said. If a new writer asked me the same question today I would tell them to “Read and write critically” because I find the process of investigating other poets eventually elucidates my own work.

If you are a reader of New Zealand poetry and can suggest a poet who writes long narrative poems, I would love to hear from you.

My foray into the craft world is going well after only a week of my live and kicking Felt shop, RobotLove. As well as purchases I have had a few enquiries about what other designs I am going to make. Tonight my partner suggested a cartoon bomb (he also suggested he might become a craft widower!) and I like the idea of a conceptually ticking cushion. I’m also keen to try and make a diamond with different coloured felt for the facets: geometric but playful. The new gift gathering website Wrapped featured my cushions in one of their recent posts, thanks guys. The blog ‘curates’ gifts available online and seems to be aimed at shoppers who live outside of the main New Zealand cities where there are less shopping options. I have also found that it is also a lot more expensive to post to smaller towns and rural locations which I didn’t realise before having to post my wares. I have a feeling that this is just the beginning of my craft-selling learning curve. Anyway, any advice on how to minimise postage (both for myself and my customers) would be welcomed. Any stellar and modern ideas for designs are welcomed as well.

Book launches are really a good way of discovering new writing and also hearing writers read their work. There is one coming up that I am quite excited to attend. Later this month Bill Manhire will launch three books of ‘duets’ between American and New Zealand poets that have been edited by New Zealand poet and essayist Alice Miller and Americans Zach Savich and Mark Leidner. While I am a fan of many New Zealand poets, a particular type of North American poetry sparks for me (out of the three poets I am studying for my PhD only one is a New Zealander), so I’m quite interested to see how these New Zealanders and Americans have been paired by the editors.

The New Zealand poets featured in this series include well known Wellington poet James Brown who is paired with American poet Dora Malech who taught creative writing at the International Institute of Modern Letters a few years ago. I am especially interested to read this collection because, from my perspective, their work appears quite different. Brown’s poetry seems to purposefully work against lyrical tradition whereas Malech, from what I have read, can be quite lyrical. Both display a pointy sense of humour in their poetry which I think will tie their work together.

The next pairing is Sam Sampson, an Auckland poet whose book Everything Talks won the NZ Society of Authors award for the best first book of poetry last year, and Andrew Grace who I haven’t had the pleasure to read. I scanned some of Sampson’s work last week while browsing in a bookstore and was surprised to find complex and constructed shape poetry that I haven’t seen in recent New Zealand publications (see this poem in Best NZ Poems 2008). His lexicon reminds me of Christian Bok in technicality and tone so I am intrigued to read his work.

The third duet is between Joan Fleming, a good friend of mine and one of New Zealand’s brightest new poets, and Emily Toder who I also am excited to read. Fleming’s work can be wistful and dreamlike and I think she uses this light touch to draw the reader into poems that show the world in a new way. Her most recent work has been mostly prose poetry and short narratives and is really very good.

I encourage you to come along and listen to some New Zealand poetry. Duets will be launched on Monday 12 July, 6pm at the Southern Cross Bar on Abel Smith Street. Please RSVP by 8th July to ackmiller@gmail.com. You can find out more about these poets on the duets website.

After a successful poetry reading and then a 5.30am start to fly to my godfather’s funeral in Christchurch on Saturday, I have finally succumb to the cold that is going around Wellington. I’ve been on the couch for a few days (I went for a walk this morning and after half an hour was very wobbly!) and as I am not one to be unproductive I’ve finally sorted out my Felt shop. Felt is a really great online resource for crafters who don’t have the funds or time to start up a business but would like to sell some of their crafts.

My shop name is “Robot Love” because my most recent design is of a robot with a heart detail. Cute. I like transforming what are usually hard objects (robots, tanks) into soft furnishings. Anyway, please check it out and if you would like a robot cushion, or any other sort of crafting, let me know.

Winter has settled into Wellington. I am still walking into town most mornings but I often resemble an eskimo and I’m sometimes stiff and cold by the time I arrive. I’ve been working from the central library with its high ceilings and glass walls (and easy access to oh-s0-trashy magazines). It is an open and airy space, warm and inhabited, and I look out over Civic Square. My office at university feels isolated. My head is too loud in that space. Life has been loud recently as well. I went to visit my friend and fellow poet, Joan, down in Takaka, have had stage one marking to finish and I am running two creative writing workshops next week for Massey in Palmerston North. Tomorrow I have to go to a funeral.

Above is a found poem on the lighthouse at the tip of the Mirimar Peninsula that my friend and I discovered while scouting for graffiti. Yes, we were walking on the dangerous causeway. I am five months into my doctorate and last week I submitted a ten thousand word essay on Christian Bök’s book Crystallography (1994) and twenty pages of new poetry to my supervisors. I have to admit to a fan-girl crush on Bök. His poetry is precise and constructed and he has interesting theoretical reasons for his work. At the moment some of my poetry could be accused of riffing his style but I see that as part of the learning process. I’ve had to redraft my thesis proposal (for the confirmation at the beginning of next year) because my topic, as expected, changed its focus once I started the actual analysis. For those dear geeks out there who want to know, this is my current research question,

“Is a new ecocritical examination valuable to reading of selected poems by Robert Hass, Hone Tuwhare and Christian Bök? Specifically, using a new ecocritical approach that considers “nature” to be both human and nonhuman and does not have a “green” objective, in what ways do selected works of poets Robert Hass, Hone Tuwhare and Christian Bök break down the traditional conceptual division between human and nonhuman and reconceptualise nature? Can their work be considered a new nature writing?”

It is hard to say how my work is progressing in terms of quality (that is really for my supervisors to judge) but I can say that the doctorate has transformed my writing practice. It took five months to relax into regular writing and develop an agreement with myself to write when I feel ready (I don’t like the word inspired because it suggests an outside actor and I see the feeling as a combination of being rested, focused and knowing where I want the poem to go) and to trust that those times of readiness will arise. There are few things I dislike more than trying to force out a poem.

That doesn’t mean that the process of writing hasn’t included hard work and frustration. A few weeks ago I spent five plus hours writing a poem but, at the end of the day, I only kept five lines. Five lines! The next day the poem came together into something that I really like which wouldn’t have happened if I’d beaten myself up for being unproductive. Another example is the poem I am writing at the moment about my relationship with my father. It is about two and a half pages (and will probably end up around six) and I’ve been working on it for the last three or four weeks. It has been this length for some time even though I am putting a lot of time into editing and being patient. While it doesn’t get much longer it is becoming clearer; it is revealing itself.

I think one of my previous posts talked about trust and I suppose I am discussing it again because trust seems an essential part of being a successful writer. When I say successful I don’t only mean producing quality poems but enjoying the experience of writing. You have to enjoy your life and be proud of your work. This is the main reason I agreed to give a reading tonight at the launch of the journal Hue & Cry. I am going to read The Holiday, the long narrative poem that was published earlier this year in Sport. It will take me around fifteen minutes to read. I am introverted and shy by nature which means that I will avoid speaking in front of large groups (by large I mean more than two people) with the same zeal that I avoid dental work and internal examinations. But at some point I have to publicly own my work and say, hey, this is worthwhile.

For the last year I have been making cushions from an incredibly simple pattern which I will eventually post to this blog once I draw it up. If you can sew a straight line and measure correctly (measure twice, cut once!) then you can make this cushion. I have been taking different fabrics (such as upcycled 1970s curtains or kimono fabric) and combining them with vintage New Zealand wool blankets in oranges, pinks, greens and grey. These types of cushions are pretty popular at the moment and you can find them in most craft-friendly gift stores (I think it is because each one is snuggly and unique). A month ago I made my partner a pair of Tiananmen Square inspired cushions, one with a tank and the other with the man holding his shopping who stopped the procession of tanks in Tiananmen Square. Last week I bought two very smart orange checked blankets and I am going to make some cushions and attempt to sell them. For the designs I have drawn up a robot, a diamond, my tank and a big blooming flower. These seem like designs that are slightly out of the ordinary (apart from the flower) but I can really do any sort of design a customer would want. This is really a labour of love (as most craft is) but I need to start selling some of my wares to finance future experiments with new fabrics and designs. This Christmas I am going to make packets of handmade decorations in both paper and fabric which I hope to sell as well. How much I should charge for these goodies is still a mystery to me because the prices I find online are quite diverse. But that is something I presume I will learn with time once I figure out my costs in time and materials. Mostly I would just be happy if other people enjoyed my crafting. Wish me luck.

“New Zealanders consumed 735,000 tonnes of packaging last year but we only recycled 58% of it. We can and must do better.” - Packaging Council of New Zealand

Last Saturday the cashier in my downtown organics store offered to pack my tofu and apples in a corn starch bag. He said that the bags were sturdy and they could be used compost my vegetable scraps because, if I buried the bag, it would eventually decompose. It made me wonder why all packaging wasn’t decomposable. In modern life packaging is so common as to be invisible and although there have been campaigns to lower the use of plastic bags in supermarkets, most packaging is just part of daily life. When I say packaging I am talking about coke cans, chocolate bar wrappers, supermarket bags and retail bags but also industrial packaging. Packaging is the ephemeral, throwaway, one-use containers that store the stuff of our life.

Packaging is pretty useful. It helps us make the most of food production by keeping it unblemished and fresh between the grower and the consumer. I am sure a debate team somewhere has argued that packaging helped the women’s movement because it freed up time traditionally spent by women in making fresh food. Packages help us carry stuff, separate foods, share information but it also helps us spend money. In the last two years my shampoo brand have transformed their packaging two or three times to snare new customers. A few years ago I was in Japan and walking, bemused, in a supermarket when I discovered the fruit section. There were trays of giant peaches, each one individually wrapped in its own foam lattice. As an environmentalist I think that one of the ways I can lower my ‘foot print’ is to look the habits I take for granted. I decided to look at my packaging use and figure out what can I do to lower that amount. I want to be informed in my choices. Is it possible to live entirely without packaging? Is recycling really a viable system? To answer these questions I kept a packaging diary for a week and this blog entry will talk about that experience, what I have found out about packaging and the tips for lowering your own packaging score.

My week of packaging

I thought my week of tracking packaging would be quite fun. I was excited: I had a spreadsheet. To give you a breakdown of the diagram above, the twenty three food wrappers consisted of four plastic wrappers from items such as kitchen towels or soap, eight from tinned food (including pet food) and the rest were food wrappers (like tofu containers and biscuit boxes). The eighteen takeaway containers surprised me as I pack my lunch each day as well as fruit and snacks. This number was mostly wrappers for snack bars, disposable coffee cups, drink bottles and a sushi takeaway container. If I hadn’t been writing everything down it would be easy to forget about nipping to the dairy to buy a nut bar and although I buy coffee every day I hadn’t realised that means around 20,000 coffee cups if I live to eight five. I carry a fabric shopping bag with me which is why I only used two plastic bags, some proof that actually making a small change does work. Out of everything that I wrote down (and I am sure I missed a lot) only eight tins and one water bottle were able to be recycled.

When I went to the supermarket I found there were many products that I couldn’t buy in recyclable packages such as tofu and yogurt mix. I make my own yogurt at home because I found all  but one of the common yogurt containers are non-recyclabe. I also didn’t have many options to buy food without packaging but other customers didn’t give me funny looks when I made a little pile of fruit and vegetables in the bottom of my trolley and pulled out an old ziplock bag for nuts from the bulk bins from my pocket. In terms of recycling I don’t know how effective New Zealand’s system actually is. The Plastics New Zealand website says that “landfill is the prevalent destination for plastic products” and that “PET (1) is exported in bales to be reprocessed to Australia, China and Asia” but “most HDPE (2) and commercial film is being reprocessed here.” I presume plastics 3 – 7 are the ones that end up in landfills. It seems to me that it would be better to be front load the process so consumers could buy products without packaging (or with packaging that could decompose in home composts) than having to ship our plastics overseas. But what seems to be more important than reducing landfill is being able to harvest the investment we have already made in creating plastics so we don’t have to make that investment a second time. This National Geographic article talks a little bit about the topic and this NG feature article High Tech Trash talks about the US shipping e-waste overseas.

Statistics and Official Bodies

The Packaging Council of New Zealand states that packaging makes up less than 10% of New Zealand’s waste and because of advances in lightweight packaging there “are many misconceptions about the amount of waste caused by packaging.” This is low compared to the United States where packaging makes up 30% of waste (Source: Municipal Solid Waste in the United States: 2006 Facts and Figures, U.S. EPA, 11/07). One web article I read stated that “as of 1994, the European Union requires manufacturing companies to take back and recycle at least 60 percent of their packaging waste…no such incentive for reducing packaging exists for manufacturers in the U.S. or Canada.” I am not sure if such a requirement exists in New Zealand and even though packaging only makes up 10% of our waste, it only takes a tiny hole to sink a boat.

New Zealand does have a Packaging Accord, a five year voluntary initiative (2004-2009) that was signed by goods industries and local and central government with an aim to cut down wasteful packaging. While this sounds great on paper the final report stated that while recycling targets were met overall the production of packaging had increased. It also stated that one of the challenges was finding markets for the increase in recycled materials. While an increase in recycling shows that communities are becoming more away of individual responsibility what is more exciting is the responsibility shown by big business. Fonterra won the supreme award in 2009 for creating a new milk fat container that “saved over $8m per year, removed over 40,000 pallets and 2,500 tonnes of paper.” I wonder if Fonterra would have been so invested in changing their packaging if it had cost them $8m per year? The reality, it seems, always comes back to cost.

What can you do?

In short, inconvenience yourself and plan ahead. During my week of packaging my mindfulness made me more vigilant that I would normally be. In truth it was a pain in the ass. I also started to feel eco-guilt about using packaging, especially plastics. One evening after university I was nearly home but felt flushed and shaky. I realised I hadn’t eaten enough for lunch and ended up buying juice and some Japanese takeaways in the village. I ate sitting on the curb and watching people trudge off a bus. My chest felt a little tight when I realised how easily I was about to put two plastic containers and a bag into the rubbish. This may sound a little crazy but it made me realise how invisible packaging had been before I started to pay attention. Maybe I should be feeling guilty; up until now I had been putting my personal convenience before social responsibility. I aspire to be a hard-core eco-warrior but I realise that most people won’t embrace that sort of change. But just in case you want some ideas on how to reduce your packaging I’ve collated tips together from different websites as well as some of my own.

Lazy eco-warriors:

• Speak with your dollar: check packaging, buy recyclable and recycle.
• Buy your fruit and vegetables loose.
• Say no to junk mail with a cute sign.
• By a container and refill: dish liquid / handsoap are good examples.
• Buy second hand and give your unwanted goods to charity.
• Think beyond food. Say no a bag in shops.

Practiced eco-warriors:

• Grow your own vegetables.
• Take a fabric bag everywhere, not just in the boot of your car, so you can always say no to a bag.
• Buy in bulk (but check it isn’t a bulk lot of individually wrapped packages).
• Be a kid: make gifts, make cards or trade skills with your craft friends!
• Make your own meals and snacks. Take them to work, school & parties.
• Give up the plastic wrap and foil and use tupperware.
• Instead of paper plates by ones made of potato starch.
• Print on both sides of paper. Reuse envelopes. Wrap pressies in newspaper. Take notes digitally.
• Get a reusable coffee cup, usually with the first coffee free.

Hard-core eco-warriors:

• Keep cutlery in your bag so you never need a plastic fork.
• Carrying a zip lock bag for bulk bin visits.
• Carry tupperware with you for takeaways/fish/cheese in tupperware.
• Talk to people about packaging. Blog about packaging. Link to this blog!

More tips on what you can do can be found at the Packaging Council and this article on consumer choices. I personally buy bulk and refillable at Common Sense Organics and Moore Wilsons and put my purchases in an Envirosax.

I don’t know how long I’ve had this website but it must be nearly ten years. For most of that time it’s been a place for me to put my writing and links to poetry I have published in online journals  (or, when I was younger, vent). Last year I started to really get into the craft movement and more than anything I’ve appreciated the helpful free patterns and detailed instructions that other crafters put on their website. Instead of creating a new website for craft I thought I would revamp theredroom.org so it can be a place where I can put up pdfs of my homemade patterns, talk about the vegetables I am trying to grow or the things I am doing to try and live in a better way. I folded my writing blog that is focused on my PhD into this site but my old archives (as in before 2010) have gone underground. New design, new content.

“…are almost universally held not only by Christians and neo-Christians but also by those who fondly regard themselves as post-Christians. Despite Copernicus, all the cosmos rotates around our little globe. Despite Darwin, we are not, in our hearts, part of the natural process. We are superior to nature, contemptuous of it, willing to use it for our slightest whim.” (12)

This piece of street art was photographed in Newtown on 27 March, 2010.