This is Mark's blog.
In March 2022, I published an eBook of love poems written between December 2021 and February 2022. It was available as a free EP like Indie bands do at Lulu.com Bookstore.
In September, I decided to make the book available in print as well. The new edition can now be bought from Lulu.com Bookstore.
In September, I released a new book of poems with Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop called Black Gold after a break of four years. The book is important to my body of work as it is mostly written in the local New Zealand tradition of poets and poetry and dedicated to James K Baxter who died early at age 46.
Previously my early poetry had been innovating away from this local tradition.
Poets Hone Tuwhare, Kevin Ireland, Clive James, John O'Connor, Michael Duffett (USA), Alistair Te Ariki Campbell, Meg Campbell and songwriter Mahinarangi Tocker receive elegies.
Poet and editor Tony Beyer says of the book: "[Pirie's] poems have real depth and maturity, and I applaud their consistent respect for and celebration of the life of poetry. Respect and compassion for people, too. Pirie’s work always seems to have been headed this way, with an accurate ability to make the personal universal.”
In September, The Night Press published a new collection of Margaret Jeune's poems written since the publication of her Selected Poems in 2021.
It's published as part of a continuing series of chapbooks by The Night Press that includes Alex Jeune, Mark Pirie, Jeanne Bernhardt and MaryJane Thomson.
Jeune's book is available online at lulu bookstore: Shop the Indie Online Bookstore | Lulu
Recently I was published in New York in the journal Shabdaguchha, January-December 2023, Volume 25, Number 3/4, poets from 25 countries.
The journal is an international bilingual poetry magazine edited by Hassanal Abdullah, the author of more than 50 books. He has appeared at poetry festivals in China, Poland, Greece, Mexico, Canada and India.
Abdullah recently edited a World Poetry Anthology on Amazon. See the publisher's website: World Poetry Anthology / Edited by Hassanal Abdullah — Darklight Publishing LLC
He approached me to be included as a NZ poet known overseas to Professor Nicholas Birns of NYU. I served on the advisory board of Antipodes (USA). When the copy arrived, I found myself alongside many distinguished poets, including the 2020 Nobel Prize winning poet Louise Glück, Australian John Kinsella and the Arab poet Adonis.