Poetry Day in Hastings

Poems will be let loose at the Hastings District Library next week to celebrate NZ Poetry Day.

A large number of poems are expected to venture out of their usual confines and pop up around the library shelves during the week, says libraries manager Paula Murdoch.

“Of course, being in the library, they will still need to be properly catalogued,” she says.

“I am expecting poppy poems to flower in the garden section, pikelet poems to appear in the cooking section and a road poem or two to be touring through the travel section.”

In addition, local poets Jenny and Emily Dobson will perform a mother and daughter duo at a lunch-time event on NZ Poetry Day, August 26.

Jenny Dobson has a long association with local poetry and with the Hastings War Memorial Library, having performed at Poetry Day and Women’s Writing Events over many years. Her poem Quiet Please is displayed in the library as a commissioned artwork marking the 50 th anniversary of Hastings becoming a city.

Emily Dobson completed her MA in creative writing at Victoria University in 2004, winning the Adam Prize for best folio and the Schaeffer Fellowship to Iowa University. She has published two books of poetry and was one of the writers featured in last year’s Hawke’s Bay Arts Festival. Emily is also the poetry judge for this year’s HB Shorts writing competition.

The lunchtime poetry concert, running from noon to 2pm, will include recorded poems by well-known New Zealand poets.

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