Voyagers Read online

  Interactive Press

  Voyagers

  Mark Pirie is a Wellington, New Zealand writer, editor, publisher and critic. From 1995-2005 he initiated, co-edited and produced the literary magazine JAAM (Just Another Art Movement).

  His works include 21 books of poems, a book of song lyrics, and a book of short fi ction. In 1998 he edited Th

  e NeXt Wave anthology of New Zealand

  ‘Generation X’ writing. He currently edits the HeadworX New Poetry

  Series (http://headworx.eyesis.co.nz ) and the poetry journal broadsheet, and co-organizes the Winter Readings series of events in Wellington.

  A verse novel, Tom, will be published by Poets Group, Christchurch in 2009.

  Tim Jones is a poet, short story writer and novelist. His most recent books are the short story collection Transported (Vintage, 2008), which was long-listed for the 2008 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award; the poetry collection All Blacks’ Kitchen Gardens (HeadworX, 2007); and the fantasy novel Anarya’s Secret (RedBrick, 2007). More information: http://timjonesbooks.blogspot.com

  Interactive Press

  Th

  e Literature Series

  Mark Pirie

  Tim Jones

  Voyagers

  Science Fiction Poetry

  from New Zealand

  edited by Mark Pirie and Tim Jones

  Interactive Press

  Brisbane

  Interactive Press

  an imprint of IP (Interactive Publications Pty Ltd)

  Treetop Studio • 9 Kuhler Court

  Carindale, Queensland, Australia 4152

  [email protected]

  ipoz.biz/IP/IP.htm

  First published by IP in 2009

  Introduction, arrangement and selection © Mark Pirie and Tim Jones, 2009; poems as acknowledged.

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.

  Printed in 11 pt Cochin on 12 pt Myriad Pro.

  National Library of Australia

  Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

  Title:

  Voyagers : a New Zealand science fi ction poetry anthology /

  Editors, Mark Pirie and Tim Jones.

  ISBN:

  9781921479212 (pbk.)

  Notes:

  Includes index.

  Subjects:

  Science fi ction, New Zealand--Poetry.

  Other Authors/Contributors:

  Pirie, Mark, 1974-

  Jones, Tim, 1959-

  Dewey Number: NZ821.100993

  Acknowledgements

  Jacket Images: Spectral-Design ( fr ont cover); Clint Spencer (back cover)

  Jacket Design: David Reiter

  Mark Pirie Photo: Michael O’ Leary (2009)

  Tim Jones Photo: Sonali Mukherji (2007)

  Th

  e editors thank Dr David Reiter at IP for taking on the project and for publishing this anthology, and his editors and designers such as Emily Brinkworth for their work on the book. Th

  anks to Mallinson Rendel

  publishers, Wellington, New Zealand, for their assistance with an earlier version of this book. Niel Wright, Original Books, helped with the permission for the Ruth Gilbert poem, Anna Hodge provided help with the Auckland University Press (AUP) permissions. Th

  e Alexander Turnbull Library staff

  provided assistance in tracking down the Louis Johnson manuscript poems, and thanks is given to Cecilia Johnson for their reproduction.

  Rachel Bush’s unpublished poem ‘Voyagers’ was originally written for John Rimmer who had been commissioned to compose a song to be sung by Year 9

  students at the opening of Botany Downs Secondary College, Auckland, New Zealand, in 2004.

  Th

  anks too to the poets or executors (and their publishers) who generously agreed to letting their work appear here and for foregoing royalties in this instance.

  – Mark Pirie and Tim Jones

  For permission to reprint the poems in this anthology, acknowledgement is made to the following:

  Fleur Adcock: excerpts from ‘Gas’ and ‘Last Song’ from Poems 1960-2000 (2000), Bloodaxe Books, UK, to the author. Raewyn Alexander: ‘in the future when we grow new brains’ to the author. Puri Alvarez: ‘Saturn’s Rings’ to the author. Jenny Argante:

  ‘Space Age Lover’ to the author. Tony Beyer: ‘Kron’ from Craccum, Volume 49, Issue 21, 30 September 1975 to the author. Peter Bland: ‘An Old Man and Science Fiction’

  vi

  revised from Habitual Fevers in 3 Poets: Peter Bland, John Boyd and Victor O’Leary (1958), Capricorn Press to the author. Iain Britton: ‘Departing Takaparawha’ to the author. Alan Brunton: ‘Vis Imaginitiva’ from Slow Passes: 1978-1988 (1991), Auckland University Press (AUP); and ‘F/S’ from Ecstasy (2001), Bumper Books, to the executor Michele Leggott. Dana Bryce: ‘Dreams of Alien Love’ from Aliens and Lovers (1983) ed. Millea Kenin, Unique Graphics, USA, to the author. Rachel Bush: ‘Voyagers’ to the author. Alistair Te Ariki Campbell: ‘Looking at Kapiti’ from Th e Dark Lord of Savaiki:

  Collected Poems (2005), Hazard Press to the author. Meg Campbell: ‘Th e End of the

  World’ from Th

  e Better Part (2000), Hazard Press to the executor Alistair Te Ariki Campbell. Gordon Challis: ‘Th

  e Th

  ermostatic Man’ from Building (1963), Caxton

  Press to the author. Janet Charman: ‘in your dreams’ to the author. Mary Cresswell:

  ‘Metastasis’ to the author. James Dignan: ‘Great Minds’ to the author. John Dolan: ‘In Which I Materialize, Horribly Maimed, in the Transporter Room of the Enterprise’

  from Stuck Up: poems fr om Great Central Lake (1995), AUP; and ‘Th e Siege of

  Dunedin’ from People with Real Lives Don’t Need landscapes (2003), AUP to the author.

  Marilyn Duckworth: ‘Th

  in Air’ from Other Lovers’ Children (1975), Pegasus Press to the author. David Eggleton: ‘60-Second Warning’ from People of the Land (1988), Penguin Books (NZ) Ltd; and ‘Overseasia’ from Rhyming Planet (2001), Steele Roberts Ltd to the author. Chris Else: ‘Hypnogogia’ to the author. Andrew Fagan: ‘A Spaceship Has Landed Near Nuhaka’ from Take the Chocolates and Run (1984), David Cohen Publications to the author. A.R.D. Fairburn: ‘2000 A.D.’ from Collected Poems (1966), Pegasus Press to the executor Dinah Holman. Cliff Fell: ‘In Truth or Consequences’

  from Beauty of the Badlands (2008), Victoria University Press (VUP) to the author.

  Gary Forrester: ‘Th

  e Th

  irst Th

  at Can Never Be Slaked’ to the author. Janis Freegard:

  ‘Beside the Laughing Kitchen’ to the author. Robin Fry: ‘Lift -off ’ from Weather Report (2001), Inkweed to the author. Ruth Gilbert: ‘Still Centre’ from Selected Poems, 1941-1998 (2008), Original Books to the author. David Gregory: ‘Einstein’s Th eory Simply

  Explained’ to the author. Nic Hill: ‘Somewhere Else’ to the author. Kevin Ireland:

  ‘Instructions About Global Warming’ from How to Survive the Morning (2008), Cape Catley to the author. Rob Jackaman: excerpt from Lee: A Science Fiction Poem (1976), Underoak Press to the author. Anna Jackson: ‘Death Star’, from Th e Pastoral Kitchen

  (2001), AUP to the author. Louis Johnson: ‘Four Poems from the Strontium Age’ from New Worlds for Old (1957), Capricorn Press and Selected Poems (2000), VUP; ‘Love Among the Daleks’ from ATL, MS-Papers-8095-030; and ‘To a Science-
Fiction Writer’

  from ATL, MS-Papers-8095-017 to the executor Cecilia Johnson and the Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. Tim Jones: ‘Th

  e stars, Natasha’ from Boat

  People (2002), HeadworX; and ‘Good Solid Work’, ‘Th e First Artist on Mars’, and

  ‘Touchdown’ from All Blacks’ Kitchen Gardens (2007), HeadworX to the author. David Kārena-Holmes: ‘Your Being’ from From the Antipodes (2002), Maungatua Press to the author. Phil Kawana: ‘Th

  is machine kills aliens’ from Jewels in the Water ed. Terry Locke (2000), Leaders Press, University of Waikato to the author. Fiona Kidman: ‘An aft ermath’ from Wakeful Nights: Selected Poems (1991), Vintage/Random House to the author. Hilaire Kirkland: ‘Th

  ree Poems’ from Blood Clear and Apple Red (1981),

  Wai-te-ata Press to the executor Michael Neill. Katherine Liddy: ‘Crab Nebula’ from vii

  AUP New Poets 3 (2008), AUP to the author. Rachel McAlpine: ‘Satellites’ from Selected Poems (1988), Mallinson Rendel to the author. Tracie McBride: ‘Contact’ to the author. Seán McMahon: ‘planet one’ from Apocalyptic Bodies (c.1994), self-published to the author. Harvey McQueen: ‘Aft er the Disaster’ from Recessional (2004), HeadworX; and ‘Return’ from broadsheet 2: new new zealand poetry (2008), Th e Night Press to the

  author. Owen Marshall: ‘Awakening’ from Occasional: 50 Poems (2004), Hazard Press to the author. Jane Matheson: ‘An Alien’s Notes on fi rst seeing a prunus-plum tree’ to the author. Th

  omas Mitchell: ‘Rituals’ to the author. Harvey Molloy: ‘Nanosphere’

  from Th

  e White Album Readings ed. Mark Pirie (2008), ESAW and Moonshot (2008), Steele Roberts Ltd to the author. Michael Morrissey: ‘UFOs in Autumn’ from Taking in the View (1986), AUP; and ‘Are the Andromedans Like Us’ from Th e American Hero

  Loosens His Tie (1988), VanGuard Xpress to the author. James Norcliff e: ‘the ascent’

  from Villon in Millerton (2007), AUP to the author. Michael O’Leary: ‘Hey man, Wow!

  [ Jimi Hendrix]’ and ‘Nuclear Family – A Fragment’ from Toku Tinihanga: Selected Poems 1982-2002 (2003), HeadworX to the author. Stephen Oliver: ‘Manned Mission to the Green Planet’ from Night of Warehouses: New and Selected Poems 1978-2000 (2001), HeadworX; and ‘Letter to an Astronomer’ from Either Side the Horizon (2005), Titus Books to the author. Jacqueline Crompton Ottaway: ‘Black Hole’ to the author. Alistair Paterson: ‘Time traveller’ from Summer on the Côte d’Azur (2004), HeadworX to the author. Jack Perkins: ‘Out of Time’ to the author. Chris Pigott: ‘“We’re thinking of going into space”’ from JAAM 6 (1997), Wai-te ata Press to the author. Mark Pirie: ‘Dan and His Amazing Cat’; ‘Liam Going’ from Th

  e Search: Poems & Stories (2007), ESAW; and

  ‘Th

  e Rescue Mission’ to the author. Vivienne Plumb: ‘Signs of Activity’ and ‘Th e Last

  Day of the World’ from Nefarious (2004), HeadworX to the author. Jenny Powell with John Dolan: ‘Note to the Aliens’ from Double Jointed (2003), Inkweed to the authors.

  Cath Randle: ‘Th

  e Purple fantastic, feels like elastic, spangled and plastic ray gun’ to the author. Trevor Reeves: ‘they’re keeping tabs’ from Apple Salt (1976), Caveman Press to the author. Helen Rickerby: ‘Tabloid Headlines’ from JAAM 2 (1995), Wai-te-ata Press to the author. Anna Rugis: ‘the poetry of the future’ to the author. Bill Sewell: ‘Space & Time’, ‘Th

  e World Catastrophe’, ‘Th

  e Imaginary Voyage’ and ‘Utopia’ from Solo Flight

  (1982), University of Otago Press to the executor Amanda Powell. Iain Sharp: ‘Karen Carpenter Calls Interplanetary Craft ’ from Poetrymath ed. Mark Pirie (2006), ESAW to the author. Meliors Simms: ‘Two Kinds of Time’ to the author. Robert Sullivan: excerpts from Star Waka (1999), AUP to the author. Brian Turner: ‘Earth Star’ from Beyond (1992), John McIndoe to the author. Tze Ming Mok: ‘Lament of the imperfect copy of Ensign Harry Kim’ to the author. Richard von Sturmer: excerpt from ‘Mill Pond Poems’

  from Suchness: Zen Poetry and Prose (2005), HeadworX to the author. Nelson Wattie:

  ‘Th

  e Art of Translation’ from Th

  e White Album Readings ed. Mark Pirie (2008), ESAW

  to the author. Mike Webber: ‘My Personal Universe’ from Warm Primates (2003), self-published to the author. Simon Williamson: ‘Japan 2030’ from Storyteller: Poems 1988-1999 (2002), HeadworX to the executors Rob and Dianne Williamson. Sue Wootton:

  ‘the verdigris critic’ from Hourglass (2005), Steele Roberts Ltd to the author.

  viii

  Contents

  Introduction

  Back to the Future

  Anna Rugis, the poetry of the future

  Louis Johnson, To a Science-Fiction Writer

  A.R.D. Fairburn, 2000 A.D.

  Janet Charman, in your dreams

  Bill Sewell, Utopia

  Alistair Paterson, Time traveller

  David Gregory, Einstein’s Theory Simply Explained

  Jenny Powell with John Dolan, Note to the Aliens

  Raewyn Alexander, in the future when we grow new brains

  Alan Brunton, F/S

  Harvey Molloy, Nanosphere

  Meliors Simms, Two Kinds of Time

  Jack Perkins, Out of Time

  Jacqueline Crompton Ottaway, Black Hole

  Tim Jones, Good Solid Work

  Apocalypse Now

  John Dolan, The Siege of Dunedin

  David Eggleton, Overseasia

  Alistair Te Ariki Campbell, Looking at Kapiti

  Bill Sewell, The World Catastrophe

  Rachel McAlpine, Satellites

  David Eggleton, 60-Second Warning

  Meg Campbell, The End of the World

  Vivienne Plumb, The Last Day of the World

  Louis Johnson, Four Poems from the Strontium Age

  Michael O’Leary, Nuclear Family – A Fragment

  ix

  Ruth Gilbert, Still Centre

  Fleur Adcock, Last Song

  Rob Jackaman, from Lee: A Science Fiction Poem

  Marilyn Duckworth, Thin Air

  Fiona Kidman, An aftermath

  Kevin Ireland, Instructions About Global Warming

  Altered States

  Iain Sharp, Karen Carpenter Calls Interplanetary Craft

  Gordon Challis, The Thermostatic Man

  Trevor Reeves, they’re keeping tabs

  Mary Cresswell, Metastasis

  Simon Williamson, Japan 2030

  Tony Beyer, Kron

  Louis Johnson, Love Among the Daleks

  Seán McMahon, planet one

  Janis Freegard, Beside the Laughing Kitchen

  Thomas Mitchell, Rituals

  Alan Brunton, Vis Imaginitiva

  Harvey McQueen, After the Disaster

  Jenny Argante, Space Age Lover

  Chris Else, Hypnogogia

  James Norcliffe, the ascent

  Fleur Adcock, from Gas

  ET

  Vivienne Plumb, Signs of Activity

  Michael Morrissey, UFOs in Autumn

  Andrew Fagan, A Spaceship Has Landed Near Nuhaka

  Dana Bryce, Dreams of Alien Love

  Tracie McBride, Contact

  Cliff Fell, In Truth or Consequences

  Nelson Wattie, The Art of Translation

  x

  Phil Kawana, This machine kills aliens

  Michael Morrissey, Are the Andromedans Like Us

  Mark Pirie, Dan and His Amazing Cat

  James Dignan, Great Minds

  Cath Randle, The Purple fantastic, feels like elastic,

  spangled and plastic ray gun

  Jane Matheson, An Alien’s Notes on fi rst seeing a prunus-

  plum tree

  Harvey McQueen, Return

  Owen Marshall, Awakening

  Peter Bland, An Old Man and Science Fiction

  When Worlds Collide

 
Katherine Liddy, Crab Nebula

  Anna Jackson, Death Star

  Stephen Oliver, Manned Mission to the Green Planet

  Hilaire Kirkland, Three Poems

  Michael O’Leary, Hey man, Wow! [Jimi Hendrix]

  Robin Fry, Lift-off

  Tim Jones, Touchdown

  Tim Jones, The First Artist on Mars

  Puri Alvarez, Saturn’s Rings

  Robert Sullivan, from Star Waka

  Chris Pigott, ‘We’re thinking of going into space’

  Mark Pirie, Liam Going

  Iain Britton, Departing Takaparawha

  Bill Sewell, The Imaginary Voyage

  Rachel Bush, Voyagers

  Stephen Oliver, Letter to an Astronomer

  The Final Frontier

  Helen Rickerby, Tabloid Headlines

  Sue Wootton, the verdigris critic

  xi

  Richard von Sturmer, from Mill Pond Poems Brian Turner, Earth Star

  Gary Forrester, The Thirst That Can Never Be Slaked

  David Kārena-Holmes, Your Being

  John Dolan, In Which I Materialize, Horribly Maimed, in

  the Transporter Room of the Enterprise

  Mark Pirie, The Rescue Mission

  Tze Ming Mok, Lament of the imperfect copy of Ensign

  Harry Kim

  Nic Hill, Somewhere Else

  Tim Jones, The stars, Natasha

  Mike Webber, My Personal Universe

  Bill Sewell, Space & Time

  Contributor Notes

  Index of Poems (by Poet)

  xii

  Introduction

  ‘The scientist has marched in and taken the place of the poet. But one day somebody will fi nd the solution to the problems of the world and remember, it will be a poet, not a scientist.’

  – Frank Lloyd Wright

  ‘Exchanging signals with planet Mars (not fantasizing, of course) is a task worthy of a lyric poet.’

  – Osip Mandelstam

  ‘Imagination is the key to my lyrics. The rest is painted with a little science fi ction.’

  – Jimi Hendrix

  1

  Selecting poems for this anthology would have been much easier if there was a universally-agreed defi nition of science fi ction. But there isn’t. A conservative defi nition might be that science fi ction is that genre of literature which speculates about the effects of changes to the universe we know, where those changes follow or are extrapolated from known scientifi c principles.