Noticed this as we drove through a Richmond intersection en route to Nelson. Apologies to The Scrapbook Store – that lamppost has a lot to answer for!
(Looks like a good shop actually.)
Further up the road is the recently-voted top provincial bookshop in the South Island, Nelson’s independent Page and Blackmore.
One of the owners, Peter Rigg, was at the For the Love of Words book launch event and liked what he heard, so is going to push my book.
Writing rhymes with a twist in the tail can be a maddening pastime.
I like to get the scans just right, and often the words won’t come. Then the poem has to be abandoned.
Sometimes a poem will take on a life of its own, and you don’t know when it’s going to end.
Two in my book (In Defence of Egyptian Daddies and A Lake in Massachusetts – about the longest place name in America, Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagunggamaugg) took four months each to write.
But it’s all worth it when you get comments like this one that arrived today:
John’s poetry is a powerful antidote for pain, which I can personally vouch for.
I recently attended a poetry evening at Nelson Library at which John was performing. I was in intense pain due to my rheumatoid arthritis, and was considering having to leave.
The pain was so bad I had beads of sweat on my forehead, and didn’t know how I was going to cope. I had an overwhelming urge to dig my nails into my friend’s leg to relieve some of the pain.
However, once John started telling his funny stories about the English language and reading his hilarious poetry, I began laughing so much that I had a huge reduction in my pain level, which was amazing and wonderful.
“Poetry for the people, poetry for the pain.”
Margaret A. Fearn, Nelson
I rang Margaret to thank her. She’s had rheumatoid arthritis for 47 years.
It’s in her bones, lungs, joints, muscles – everywhere. Yet she has an extremely positive attitude to life – and writes poetry!
It’s a great feeling knowing I made a difference to her, even if just for a short time.
John Ansell 