Poetry paying the bills for laureate

BY TOM FITZSIMONS

When winter comes to Bluff, poet Cilla McQueen usually just hunkers down in her draughty, freezing home and keeps on writing.

So the newly announced poet laureate's first idea for the $100,000 windfall coming her way with the role is simple: "Pay the electricity bill."

For 20 years, the 60-year-old has eked out a living from poems and occasional teaching.

"I don't know how I manage it. I just do. I live below the bread line," she said before accepting the role at the National Library in Wellington ast night.

She might owe a bit to Bluff fishermen too. The generous seafarers always made sure no one went hungry in the town she had lived in for 13 years, McQueen said.

There were plenty of other lures to the icy southern town, apart from cheap living. "The fresh air. The openness. Not too many people. The beautiful natural environment and plenty of privacy ... I can have a life I want."

So how would the "very private person" deal with the demands of the most public role in New Zealand literature?

Although it felt a little overwhelming, McQueen said she was feeling "increasingly confident" about the role.

She planned to attend readings throughout the country, visit schools and libraries, and possibly continue a blog started by Michele Leggott, her predecessor and the first Government-sponsored laureate.

"But mostly I'll be doing that mysterious business of writing poetry."

Asked how much time she spent writing poetry, she said: "All day. All my life. Thinking, jotting, wandering."

McQueen refused to accept that poetry was "difficult", instead suggesting it was enjoying a resurgence. "It seems to me that in 30 years I've been writing that the profile of poetry has increased enormously."

The laureate awards were established by the winery Te Mata, but became more lucrative when the government became involved in 2007.

The role has existed for centuries in Britain. In New Zealand, laureates are selected every two years and charged with producing a collection of poems, participating in poetry functions and raising awareness of the art form.

Laureates personally receive at least $70,000 of the $100,000 award with the remainder going toward their poetry activities. They also receive a carved matua tokotoko, or storytelling stick.

AXIS

shells pipe sea music

and fern fronds punch

soft green heads into my palm

within

the tiny ladder of the DNA

the mighty spiral of the Milky Way

living

in circles of time

growing towards the light

Cilla McQueen

From Axis, Otago University Press (2001)

- © Fairfax NZ News