Mark Pirie

In October, I published a small booklet of netball poems in celebration of the game and some of New Zealand's finest netballers.

This completes my sports poetry quartet of writing on four major sports in New Zealand: rugby, cricket, football and netball.

It was something of a challenge writing on netball, predominantly a women's sport.

I have followed netball and the Silver Ferns since I was a boy. I played in a mixed boys and girls team at intermediate level before secondary school.

I decided to make the booklet of 12 poems available widely as an electronic pdf for free download as well as a printed booklet in a small run collectable format.

The book ends with an addenda by the Napier poet, former scientist and politician Bill Sutton in the form of an open letter to the Wellingtonian newspaper in 2012 (a poem in praise of Silver Fern great Irene van Dyk) replying to my poem on Maria Tutaia.

Here's the link: http://www.markpirie.com/books/12-netball-poems

In May this year, one of my HeadworX authors John O’Connor passed away.

John, in 1999, was the first publisher of my poetry through Sudden Valley Press in Christchurch. John published my poetry books: Shoot (1999), No Joke (2001), Reading the Will (2002) and TOM: A Novel in Verse (2009). The latter through the Poets Group imprint. Sudden Valley Press and Poets Group were imprints of the Canterbury Poets' Combined Presses.

I’ve written an Obituary for John in the latest edition of Poetry Notes, Winter 2015, the Poetry Archive of New Zealand Aotearoa newsletter available online for free download.

Here’s the link: http://poetryarchivenz.wordpress.com/newsletters

Another tribute I wrote shortly after his death appears on the New Zealand Poetry Society’s haiku news page:

http://www.poetrysociety.org.nz/haikunews/haikuhappenings

"Mark Pirie, (Wellington, NZ) - Hearing of John O’Connor’s death is like losing a band member, one of those rare collaborators that gets your jokes, your lyrics, your individual rhythm and idiosyncrasies and plays along with you for the love of the jam. John was the first real editor of my poetry from 1996-2010 and featured me in Spin, March 1997. We had a mutual respect that never left. I was delighted to have published his last two books through HeadworX: Whistling in the Dark and Aspects of Reality. I will write something longer on him for the Poetry Archive newsletter. In the meantime, a haiku for John, from my collection Trespassing in Dionysia (Original Books, 2008), which picks up on John’s insightful and original nature:

in John’s poem –
a side-valley
stepping

for John O’Connor

John said he’d souvenir it! Sad we didn’t get a chance to say goodbye, John will be missed by many New Zealand poets who he helped and supported over the years."

Recently, I came across a rugby league poem on the famous ground Carlaw Park by a little known New Zealand poet Francis Cloke (1860-1941).

I decided to research the poet further and came across the poet's family connection to the League code in New Zealand.

I made the research into a National Poetry Day 2015 blog.

You can read my article at the Poetry Archive of New Zealand Aotearoa website:

https://poetryarchivenz.wordpress.com/2015/08/28/national-poetry-day-poem-carlaw-park-by-francis-cloke/

In August, part of my 2011 Rugby World Cup poem was included at the start of Chapter 14 in Ron Palenski’s new definitive history of New Zealand rugby published by Auckland University Press.

It was great to see my poem quotation included but it was equally fine to see the number of historical New Zealand poets included in the book, giving a sense of New Zealand’s poetic contribution to their national game.

This may come as a surprise for some (unlike rugby songs) but as was shown with my 2010 cricket poetry anthology, there has long been a newspaper tradition in New Zealand of sports writing and commentary on games through the medium of poetry.

In academic histories or anthologies of New Zealand literature, sporting poetry is not often recognised.

It’s good that Ron Palenski has recognised this facet of the rugby game in New Zealand.

Here’s the link to the book on the publisher’s website:

http://www.press.auckland.ac.nz/en/browse-books/all-books/books-2015/rugby--a-new-zealand-history.html