3 poems published in "a fine line" NZ Poetry Society online magazine (Nov 2016)...

 Me, Afamasaga Agnes Rasmussen, Prof. Konai Helu Thaman
and Alice Meredith at AUT University (South campus)
30 Nov 2016

It was indeed a privilege to meet with noted Professor and poet Konai Helu Thaman last month (a November blog) from the University of the South Pacific (USP in Fiji) and I'll always remember being touched by her poem "You, the choice of my parents" as a young student and then later teaching it to my senior students in high school when I taught English.

And in my busyness of last month, I forgot to write about being featured in "a fine line" an online magazine by the NZ Poetry Society in which I submitted some poems for publication in the magazine and was asked to be the feature poet in which the editor chose 3 poems for publication. She described them as "three illuminating poems" which made me smile. They are as follows:

1. First childbirth
2. What's in like in your world?
3. When Royalty dies

The first poem I wrote was written several years ago when I considered my earlier fear of the pain of giving birth that I had heard so much about before having my first child. I remember as a young adult being so interested in body building at University during my undergraduate and post-graduate years and I'd read about Women body builders who discussed that having undergone intense weight training, as I had done those early years, that it helped psychologically with the pain and I totally agree with them in having given birth naturally with my three children without epidural although I went through lots of ice and the laughing gas didn't make me laugh at all. Ha ha. (And it's a good thing my husband didn't hold my hand as I would have crushed it - no joke :)

The second poem was again written a few years ago when I watched a documentary about a city in USA where many homeless people lived in cardboard boxes under bridges. This phenomenon happens all over the world and I was aware of it also in Auckland city under Grafton Bridge in town.

The third poem I also wrote many years ago when I considered 3 iconic popular culture idols of the 20th century i.e. Elvis Presley, Princess Diana and Michael Jackson. In life, they were considered "larger than life" and the paparazzi would follow them with magazine articles and they photos everywhere. However, their deaths were often peppered with sad stories and wanted to consider how, in effect, we are all similar in being called to die at some point in time, despite fame or fortune.

Any comments and thoughts would be greatly appreciated :)

First Child Birth

With the onset of my first child birth

pending, so promising

I pensively ask many a mother experienced in this

“What was it like? The pain?”

Worried, a little anxious, inexperienced

The replies came:
- You don’t want to know
- It’s like pushing an elephant through a pea hole
- Being hit by a bus, again and again
- Forget it! Epidural’s where it’s at
- C-section, go for an elective caesarean

Wow! so varied, so confusing

so scary.

My palagi midwife older, childless

“no worries,” she says

“Pacific women are stronger,

they handle the pain.”

What’$ it like in Your World?

What’$ it like in Your world?

where money $peaks it$ mind

and violence is the friction of

rubbing note$

You po$$e$$ magnificent magazine palace$ of

Exqui$itely $culptured lawn$

and coiffured tre$$e$

those $cenic height$ that $pan a panoramic view

As Your $leek wheel$

glide pa$t

i inhale your du$t

do You see me

in my cardboard box?

When royalty dies

When the King of rock died
It was 1976 and I was in my last year of primary school

bravely checking in new fillings in a dentist chair whilst listening to the radio

I couldn’t believe it!

We sung to your velvet Elvis voice

and danced to your rhythmic pelvis thrusting songs.

I ran home that day to tell my parents

then later watched TV as the whole world mourned their loss.

How you seemed to have it all

Cut down before your comeback

How unhappy you were.

...

When the Princess of the people died

it was 1999 and I was at an educational meeting
when a late arrival announced the news

I couldn’t believe it!

I remembered in 1983 how we had met in my last year of high school

I bravely shook your oh-so-soft hand and watched them take photos of you, your son

and husband at Government house.

I drove home that day to tell my family

then later watched TV as the whole world mourned their loss.

How you seemed to have it all

cut down after your prime

How unhappy you were.

...

When the King of pop died

It was 2009 and I was in my last year of a tertiary teaching contract

I visited my parents with my children when my father announced the news

I couldn’t believe it!

I’d danced to ‘Thriller’ at a high school assembly

and believed that we could ‘heal the world’ and ‘make it a better place’.

We drove home that day to tell my husband

then later watched TV as the whole world mourned their loss.

How you seemed to have it all

Cut down before your comeback concert

How unhappy you were

...

Ashes to ashes

Dust to dust