National Poetry Day: Friday, August 23, 2024

A bit of promo for the upcoming Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day

Next Friday, August 23, is Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day. There’s been a set of “Poetry Day” events in New Zealand since 1997. I’ve been involved, in some capacity, on and off, since 2001.

This year, I’m the MC for an amazing line-up of Wellington-based poets, performing at Undercurrent, a wonderful second-hand bookstore and venue in the heart of the city.

We’ll be talking Love and its many perplexities — with poems that touch on the subject from various angles.

We being Richard Langston, Khartoum Mohamed, Maggie Rainey-Smith, Sadie Lawrence, Zia Ravenscroft, Danny Bultitude, and myself.

I’ll be reading some of my new ‘Richard’ poems from my planned November collection. But my main job is sharing the names and introducing the people and trying to tie the threads of it all. Because it’s such a wonderful line-up there, and such a great venue. And Phantom Billstickers Poetry Day is a brilliant set of events, always. You can click the link above to be taken to their calendar for all other events and appearances that are taking place throughout the day. But certainly, if you’re in Wellington on the night, I’d love to see you at Undercurrent.