Christchurch City Libraries Blog

Emma Currie is a second-year student at the Hagley Writers’ Institute.

State of Emergency

1.
Hazy lazy skies
fractured terra firma, fractured people
bathing in dusted blood
while buildings play dominoes.

2.
Candle wicks tired
lulled into foetal positions
ears to transistors
terror disseminated through airwaves
lives interrupted.

3.
Electricity lies dormant
if tears could be bottled no one would want for thirst
hiding helps embroider the truth
as the death toll rises.

4.
Hearts in hands
buildings on the ground
tarps billowing spinnakers
like basketballs rusty nailed planks
catch air.

5.
Powerlines swing
inviting nimbus to play jump rope
dust twirls like khaki tutus
rubble quivers playing statues
in the whipped wind.

6.
Anxiety is a hand held
trauma is hands and knees on the ground
destruction revealed
a scarlet red curtain raised
as dust and smoke settle
waiting, red sticker, yellow sticker, green.

• Read more pieces written by Hagley Writers’ Institute students on their website

Korure

The green tunnels of my dreams
are still invaded by the sea-
the wreck waves hurtle over the cribs
and cetaceans I have never seen
rollick & clamour & band together to fossick where homes have been

-the home at Leaver Terrace
where I grew up
may still stand

was headed home there when we were warned of a tsunami & sent off early from Aranui High

we sped to New Brighton beach
to watch for it,
off the old pier-

Tautahi knew vibrant swamps,
rich with lively food
-change is not new here

our islands have dived like dolphins below the sea time & time before: our hills are sea-carved our mountains jagged from upthrust -no steadfast footing anywhere nearby- just a sure blue light of certainty that I, as a dreamer, trust- we will continue living in these unsteady lands hoping & dying & helping & building -because we are human, because we must-

• Read more about Keri Hulme on the library website
• Find Keri Hulme works at your library
• Read more Words for Christchurch submissions

Madeleine Marie Slavick is the author of several books of poetry and non-fiction, and has exhibited her photography internationally. She lives between New Zealand and Hong Kong and maintains a daily blog: http://touchingwhatilove.blogspot.com.

One Week after the earthquake

Yesterday, at 12:51, silence. Today, a coffin painted in New Zealand seascape for a man named Joseph stays in the ground. I am sitting between two Maori women, who are facebooking friends in Christchurch, asking what they might need. Hand sanitiser, they are told. Also gas canisters, guitar strings, coffee beans. A woman living in a cordoned-off zone says that people in the city are changing, staring into ‘middle distance’, not spontaneously greeting each other anymore. A student in a hospital holds the hands of the people who rescued her. She says, ‘I trust you’ and smiles. She laughs her first laughs in a week.
Photo: Covered vineyards, Martinborough, New Zealand

• View the original post and comments on Madeleine’s blog, Touching what I love
• Madeleine’s poem Twoness before Oneness was Tuesday poem on Tim Jones’s blog on February 22
• Post and image used by kind permission of the author

The earthquakes have probably changed your life – messing up your routine, creating big inconveniences and upping your stress levels. Unfortunately there are still things that remain the same, like NCEA. Yup, even though your family spend their free time digging liquifaction and you’re sharing a portaloo with your neighbours, you still have homework to do and exams to prepare for.

I’m trying (read: failing miserably) to complete assignments for my degree while dealing with the fact my life in Christchurch has been red stickered, so I know how you’re feeling. Even when you do get motivated enough to study, aftershocks keep disrupting your concentration!

You’re not on your own – the library is here to help with NCEA resources. We’ll make sure you are able to find some calm in all the chaos to concentrate on your study and show you the best homework and general reference tools so you can earn yourself an excellence.

Keep reading this blog, too. Over the next few weeks, we will continue to post helpful information about specific NCEA subjects in our series Get ya geek on.

• NCEA resources on The Pulse
• Find homework and general reference tools at your library
  
• Get ya geek on: Really useful resources for NCEA

In the second contribution from writers around the country in our Words for Christchurch series, Dunedin poet and founder of literary magazine Takahe David Howard writes an elegy to Rhys Brookbanks, who died in the CTV building collapse. The piece was originally published as All about it on Bookman Beattie’s blog. This version, David says, has been revised to incorporate some of Rhys’s own poetry, in particular The Glorious Dead.

REMEMBER WE THEM WILL

in memory of Rhys Brookbanks

1

Things go on
leaving. They go on because
they leave. A leaf falls over
itself, the very.

*

Beyond what is
said to what is, the impossible.
And you curtsy,
leaf.

2

The wind doubles
back. It carries the scent of sex
to the tree’s knot, where
you expected initials.

*

When the dead are, then
you become
petrified
wood the superstitious knock on, wanting

inside. Igneous self
leaving
nothing to the imagination stone doesn’t have.

*

The wind doubles up and
under: a noun with attitude,
sharp as a mother-in-law
studying the sheets.

3

Your picture is always in my head
which is in my hands.

(We need uninterrupted coverage)

At 12.51 the wild yonder
bruises. A lottery vendor, God

(We need half-time comments, cheer leaders and hotdogs on a stick)

crosses the square, where you
wait. The ghost of Godley

(We need widescreen TV, surround sound and optional extras)

watches from the fur of a cat,
the feather of a bird, hears the word

(We need censor’s approval)

Extra! on the lips of a newsboy.

• Read more about David Howard  on the New Zealand Book Council website
• Download Rhys Brookbanks’ The Lighthouse Man, as it appeared in Deep South 2007 [21kb .PDF]
• Read the entry about Rhys Brookbanks on the Poetry Archive of  New Zealand Aotearoa blog

I never thought the sound of graders scraping the road, trucks rumbling and bobcats beeping would make me happy. They do now because they mean people are getting on with fixing roads, water and sewerage plus dozens of other useful things.

Today I walked to St Albans to have coffee with a friend. The corner of Edgeware Road and Barbadoes Street is home to a large empty section where a two storey row of shops once stood. They came down after the September quake. Still standing nearby are two furniture craftsmen – both open, and a cafe/collectibles shop. The place was a hive of activity and I took some pictures to show something of what was going on.

Christchurch City Libraries Flickr site has some other great photos showing post quake activity – story telling, community meetings and so on. Keep an eye on it as over the next few months as it records the rising up and rebuilding of our city.

Community groups are getting on with it too – Trees for Canterbury and Club Havana are just two examples. If your club is up and running again let us know at CINCH (Community Information Christchurch) and we’ll add a message. If your meeting place has changed we can add that too.

It’s always incredibly hard trying to tease out only one or two authors when we are blessed with so many amazing writers in this beautiful small country of ours but, if I think about it, all the writers I really admire have one very important thing in common: they all write books with a warm humanity at their core.

What do I mean by this? I guess I mean that whatever they write – even if the actual story is scary or funny or violent or heart-breakingly sad – the underlying message is about the need to champion and protect everyone’s basic human rights – and to act from a place of love, not greed, or fear, or ignorance, or hate. Maurice Gee does this, as do Sherryl Jordan, Anna Mackenzie and Fleur Beale (just to name a few!)

I like books that have something to say about the world we live in – books that aren’t afraid to have an opinion, even if it’s one I don’t agree with! How about the next time you pick up a YA novel you read it with these thoughts in mind: what is the author really trying to say? How does the theme reflect what’s going on today? What ideas could I take away from this and action in my own world? Give it a go!

Mandy Hager

• Mandy Hager is an award-winning writer and educator based in Wellington.  She is the author of Smashed and the brilliant Blood of the Lamb series.
• Read an interview with Mandy on The Pulse

With the help of Graham “Bookman” Beattie, we’ve launched an open invitation for writers from around New Zealand to send us words for Christchurch. The first piece – received minutes after the invitation was offered – is from Paula Green, a West Auckland poet, children’s author and reviewer.

February

We feel far away

Someone is watching a movie and someone is choosing sushi
Someone is leaving a building and someone is in a phone booth
Someone is picking a library book and someone is baking bread
Someone is making love and someone is poaching eggs
Someone is drinking coffee and someone is drinking tea
Someone is listening to an iPod and someone is digging weeds
Someone is asking for forgiveness and someone is saying yes
Someone is holding her baby and someone is on the point of death

We feel far away and helpless

There are pictures of buildings falling and pictures of broken signs
There are pictures of cracked roads and pictures of papers flying
There are pictures of houses split in two and pictures of rising silt
There are pictures of colossal boulders and pictures of the miracles
There are pictures of teams searching and pictures of the cathedral
There are pictures of the walking dazed and pictures of the inconceivable
There are pictures of bloodstained faces and pictures of strained limbs
There are pictures of survivors weeping and pictures of hope undimmed

Helpless, we feel helpless

There is the sound of thumping hearts and the sound of rumbling ground
There is the sound of car alarms and the sound of someone found
There is the sound of china smashing and the sound of fires raging
There is the sound of phones unanswered and the sound of those afraid
There is the sound of reporters speechless and the sound of stories told
There is the sound of walls slumping and the sound of a further jolt
There is the sound of sirens shrieking and the sound of names listed
There is the sound of the mayor’s updates and the sound of labour gifted

• Find more writing by Paula Green in the library catalogue

A second round of community briefings has now been scheduled from Monday, 21 March. The briefings will provide an earthquake recovery update, local information and an opportunity to ask questions on an informal one-to-one basis.

• The briefing closest to you will be the most useful for you, however there will  be relevant information at all of the briefings.
• These are open-air briefings so dress for the weather and bring a seat.
• There may not be toilet facilities at the briefings.
• Visit www.canterburyearthquake.org.nz or phone (03) 941 8999 for more information
• View videos of previous briefings
• Download the schedule of meetings [90Kb .PDF]

Today is Race Relations Day.

This year Mother Nature has unfortunately put a stop to those events such as the Lantern Festival and Culture Galore which celebrate the wonderful diversity in our community. However now more than ever it’s important to remember the many cultures which call New Zealand home, and support each other.

If your neighbours or colleagues are new to Christchurch or have difficulty understanding English, you can help them get the information they need.

Here are some useful resources:

• Translations of Canterbury Earthquake FAQs – including Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, Japanese, Korean, Maori, Russian, Samoan, Thai and Tongan.
• New migrants having difficulty finding support locally can call 0800 776 948  Monday to Friday 8 am to 6 pm or email: settlementinformation@dol.govt.nz
• Visa and passport information from Immigration New Zealand for those affected by the earthquake.
• Language Line is a telephone interpreting service available on request in 41 languages. Over 70 agencies use Language Line, including the Ministry of Social Development, the Department of Labour, the Department of Internal Affairs and the Christchurch City Council.
• Access Internet Radio gives access to a range of audio clips to assist migrant communities receive quake-related information. The clips have been translated and voiced by volunteer broadcasters from community radio stations around the country.
• Read more about Race relations day and the Human Rights Commission on the library website

And for an inspiring look at the way in which Asian communities have been helping Christchurch in the recovery effort, Asia Downunder had a nice segment on its programme of 20 March, which you can watch at TVNZ Ondemand. You can also view Tagata Pasifika reports from Christchurch’s Pacific Island communities.