LETTERS FROM PATRICIA PRIME
Patricia Prime (b. 1973), a perceptive
New Zealand poet, editor and reviewer, is a familiar name to readers of small
poetry magazines and journals in India. A NZ editor of Slugfest, she is one of the leading haikuists with extensive
international presence. We, as poets,
have been in touch with each other for over two decades, sharing and promoting
each other’s work. Every Stone Drop
Pebble (1999) is our joint collection of haiku. She also
helped me establish connection with some NZ poets and writers whose work have
been mentioned in my New Zealand Literature: Some Recent Trends ( ed., 1998). She has been actively
associated with Kokato, Haibun Today, Takahe, Atlas Poetica, Simply Haiku,
Stylus, Muse India, Metverse Muse and
other journals and zines the world over.
1.
42 Flanshaw Road,
Te Atatu South,
Auckland 8
New Zealand
6. 4. 97
Dear Ram,
Good to get your letter of 17 March, poems and newsletter,
for which thank you. I’m reading
gradually through Language Forum and
making some notes which I hope to type out for a review when I’m on holiday in
a week or so.
Thanks also for passing on my poems to Indian mags, I’ll pass
on your poem to Spin.
I’ve sent a letter to several NZ journals: The Poetry Society Newsletter, NZ Books, Q/U and The Pen Newsletter, asking
if they would place an ad for writers to work on essays for Language Forum and will be interested to
see the response. Will also ask a couple of friends, but don’t think I will be
successful as most are too busy with their own writing. I’m going to write on
NZ as seen from offshore from the viewpoint of three NZ women poets: Anne
French, Cilla McQueen and Lauris Edmond – three very fine poets, the last
didn’t begin writing until she was well into her fifties.
You might be interested in a market listing mag I’ve been put
in touch with: John List, Light’s List,
29 Longfiled Rd., Tring, Herts., HP23 4DG, England. ($US5 air).
Loring tells me he is going to New Mexico on holiday. I hope
he gets to see both Uncle River and Summer who now seem part of our “extended
family” of poets!
Hope to hear from you soon.
Kind regards,
Pat
2.
7/9/97
Dear Ram,
Please find enclosed ms of my essay. (Could you please
italicize words that are underlined).
I have been very unwell for the past two weeks with a nasty
(and very painful) attack of shingles.
Good news, however, is that I have had two weeks off work and have two
weeks school holidays in which to recover.
I’m off to my friend Catherine’s
place for a few days and hope to have plenty of time for rest and contemplation.
I’ve received lovely letters from Dr Balarama Gupta and Mr
Bahri. Bahri says he will publish two of
my pieces in forthcoming issues of C F
and also the review of Rizvi’s poetry.
Dr Balarama Gupta can only publish the review and wanted me to extend it
by several pages (which I’ve done). I’ve
also sent him a parcel of journals/books for his research institute.
Catherine and her friend, Sandra Simpson, are getting
ready to host another poetry festival in
Tauranga next March. They have already received
acceptances from some wonderful poets. Janice Bostok, editor of Paper Wasp
(Aus) is coming and there are several NZ
poets: Bill Manhire (who runs a creative
writing course at Victoria University) and is our Poet Laureate, Reimke Ensing
who comes originally from Germany and Cilla McQueen who is married to a
well-known NZ painter, Ralph Hotere. It
promises to be very exciting. Catherine,
Janice and Patricia are going to do some poetry reading in schools in the prior
to the festival. It will be a busy time
for them. It seems that Catherine may
hand over the editing of WinterSpin
next year to a fine poet, Bernard Gadd – he printed my first poem
several years ago.
If you have any concerns over my essay please do not hesitate
to make alterations or corrections.
All the best
Pat
3.
11. 3. 98
Dear Ram,
Enclosed for you is part of Cyril Child’s letter responding
to my enquiry regarding writing a piece on haiku poets. Perhaps you could answer his questions in
detail.
As Ernest Berry has already agreed to write a piece you may
have to put off Childs or take two items on the same topic. As they come from totally different
backgrounds, experience and knowledge, I don’t think it would hurt to have two
contributions.
I received a letter from Dr Rizvi enclosing a copy of Canopy
and a book of reviews of his poems. He was upset that I hadn’t answered a
letter of his from last year but I am sure I have and it must have gone astray.
Tirra Lirra (an excellent Australian magazine) is going to publish my
review of your book. When I receive a
copy I will send it to you. They also
said that they have not received a batch of poems I sent in October so the post
is not to b trusted!
All the best
Pat
4.
1.8.98
Dear Ram,
Thank you for your letter of 8 July. You will no doubt have received my letter and
Introduction (which was aided by Catherine) and perhaps you would like to add
it “seamlessly” to your own Prefatory and add all our names to it. I return your notes with a few technicalities
altered. Call it a Preface if that is
correct!
I’m unable to contact Catherine about this as she is in
Australia for a month, but feel sure she will be in agreement.
I enclose some more of my haiku as requested and will ask
Catherine for more when she returns. You
did not, by the way, include your additional haiku, but may like to do so when
you next write.
I will write to Mr Bahri along the lines you suggest, ie.
hard cover, high quality paper. Perhaps
you could let me know whether or not the last title I sent is agreeable to you.
I’m looking forward to receiving a copy of C F and I should
be happy to receive books from Maha Nand Sharma if you could arrange this.
The Tirra Lirra
review was in Vol.8, Nos. 2 & 3, Summer/Autumn 1998, 30.
It was very interesting to read your article in the Mawaheb International. I’ve sent Ned
Bejjany a photo, bio and more poems, as he requested. He has several contacts in NZ and one of his
friends has been in touch with me.
Sympathies with you re work/weather/illness. It has been a hard month for me. We have had terrible floods here—the worst
I’ve experienced in Auckland. My
workplace was flooded and we’ve had to have the carpet replaced which has meant
a couple of days closure, and added disruptions. I’ve had some toothache and have had to
undergo expensive dental treatment, likewise my granddaughter who has three
teeth erupting in one place and has to have two removed and a plate inserted to
push her teeth forward ($600). Also my
poetry hasn’t been doing well and I’ve had a couple of rejections which was
disheartening.
On the good side,I had one poem published in Australia
and received $A100 for it, and several haiku have been accepted for USA mags,
and the second NZ Haiku Anthology is to be launched in September and
contains some of my work.
Hope all is well with you and your family and look
forward to hearing again from you.
Love
Pat
5.
8.8.98
Dear Ram,
Thanks for your letter of 28 July and for enclosing
photocopies of my poems.
I received a copy of Mawaheb
and the editor has asked me for a bio, photo and more poems. I also received a
copy of International Poetry and Dr Chambial sent me a copy of Poetcrit with my recent reviews in it.
As I mentioned in my last letter, Catherine is overseas, but
when she returns I will obtain the extra haiku from her and send them direct to
Mr Bahri and will send a copy to you.
Those of mine I sent with my last letter you may like to forward
together with the Preface to Mr Bahri. You might prefer the latest title I sent
which appeals to both Catherine and myself:
“Every Stone, Drop, Pebble”. If
it is too late to change, or should you prefer “beneath a sunshade” ,so be it.
I’m happy to hear the parcels of Slugfest reached you at last and hope you are fortunate in having
some Indian work published therein. As
you say, it takes time to be in tune with what the editors are looking
for. I haven’t had much success with
other writers’ work I’ve sent them, and it’s almost impossible to persuade
writers to part with their stories when they can be paid for them
elsewhere.
The Second NZ Haiku Anthology is to be published in
September in Wellington and I’ve been invited to the launch. However, as I’m taking time off work to go
with a friend to his book launch in October, I will not be able to go. I’ll send you a copy when it eventuates.
All the best,
Love,
Pat
6.
22.8.98
Dear Ram,
Many thanks for your letter and I presume you have by now
received the extra haiku, Preface and my suggestion for a cover illustration.
Catherine’s son is willing to do three illustrations, one for
the cover and two to go between the sections of haiku. The cover illustration may well be based on
an Indian goddess (or something similar) and hopefully will not be culturally
offensive. I’ve spoken to one or two
Indian friends and they don’t seem to think it will be a problem. (Perhaps
you could let me know about this as soon
as possible).
During the week I received a letter from Prof Syed Ameeruddin
suggesting he would like to publish a book of my poems, together with bio,
photo and critical essays under the International Poets series.
One of Catherine’s poems was used recently in an essay on a
NZ painter, Mary McIntyre, in the current issue of Art New Zealand. Unfortunately, the person who had written the
essay didn’t acknowledge the use of Catherine’s introduction to the poem which
she had used as a heading for her article, so Catherine wasn’t very happy.
Hope to hear soon that you have received everything
safely. Look forward to hearing from you
soon.
With love,
Pat
P.S. Just received Mirrors
containing your haiku, Catherine’s and mine. Congratulations!
7.
10.10.98
Dear Ram,
I’m enclosing a copy of the NZ Haiku Anthology for you and hope you enjoy it.
At present I’m busy trying to
arrange a venue in Auckland for a friend to launch his new poetry book
from. There are several places in
Auckland: The Dead Poets’ Society – a bookshop on the North Shore, St Kevin’s
Arcade in the heart of Auckland and Unity Books which specializes in poetry and
the arts. Kevin is to have two launches
before Christmas: one in Wellington and one in the South Island, to which I
hope to accompany him in December.
My week at Catherine’s wasn’t too good as Catherine had the
‘flu and had to spend a couple of days in bed while I did the cooking, washing,
etc. After she’d recovered a little we
got down to some writing: five linked verses and about 30 haiku each.
During the week we went to a concert given by a married
couple. He was a bass-baritone and sung
arias and ballads while his wife accompanied him on a clavi… something—an
electric piano which plays all the parts of the orchestra. I didn’t enjoy the
sound of the electric piano but the singing was great.
Later we went to the local quarry to have a look at the rocks
and select some for the haiku trail which Catherine’s council is making a
feature of their town for the year 2000.
Then we took a small sample of the rock to a wonderful old Maori carver
so that he could test its viability. It
is granite and will have to be worked
with tungsten-tipped tools. Tutukawera
and hi son Tutukawera Junior (who had amazing deadlocks down to his buttocks)
showed us around their workshop—ornately carved coffins, panels etc. and huge
stones carved with angels, dolphins, fish etc.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Love,
Pat
8.
19 August 2000
Dear Ram,
Many thanks for your recent letter. It is nice to hear your children are doing so
well and you must be very proud of them.
I am enclosing for you
a copy of a little book Catherine and I have published of our linked
verse. It was done purely as a family
memento, but we have received a number of orders for it, which is
pleasing. I think we’ve written over 50
linked poems in three years and
have had them published in 10
countries, which is quite an achievement.
I’ve been in touch with Mike several times as he is
now on email. Sam is back in the country
until the autumn and then will be going overseas again. His address at present is: 13 Electric
Avenue, Lunenburg, MA 01462, USA. Uncle
River seems to be doing well and was expecting visitors to his place last time
I heard from him. He has finished work
on his novel and is looking for a publisher for it.
Yes, it’s great to see the work of myself and Giovanni
in the Indian publications, although I am sorry not to have received copies of The Brain
Wave in which my work was published. Professor Jagannathan
has written to ask me to subscribe to
his magazine, but it is an expensive business, as you know.
I’ve heard at last from Mr. Bahri, after some delay
due to the malfunctioning of his computer.
He says the anthology is at the binders and he should be able to send
copies in a week or so.
At present I am busy with a number of books to review,
my last academic assignment to write, and collating a collection of haibun for
publication. When all that is finished I
hope to begin collating my own poems for publication later this year. I have asked Mr. Bahri to publish my poetry
and he seems keen on the idea—we just have to work out the cost.
I’m glad to hear you are having success with
publishing your book overseas and hope to see a copy in the future.
Here, it is nearly summer and we are looking forward
to some warmer weather. I am going down
to the South Island in September for a brief holiday and for the Haiku Sounds
Festival where I hope to meet up with some old friends. Catherine is having several of the poets back
to her place afterwards for a couple of days, so it should be a busy week.
All the best,
Pat
9.
7 October 2000
Dear Ram,
Many thanks for your letter which I received on my
return from Picton in the South Island where I was attending the Haiku Sounds
Festival. Our haijin for the event was Jim Kacian from the USA. We had a very enjoyable and stimulating
weekend and I went on to stay with Catherine and Janice Bostok (from Australia)
for a few days in Katikati.
The weather was terrible and the flights to and fro
were quite something but we arrived safely (although an hour late). Our friend (and excellent) haiukist Ernie was
there to meet us in his BMW and he and his wife Triska were most hospitable and
met our every need. Jim Kacian was delightful—a most interesting person. He was a tennis pro and now coaches tennis,
speaks several languags, is a composer, and is a keen sportsman. He regaled us most evenings with his stories
about Allen Ginsberg, the Beat poets and the New York School of poets—most of
whom he met when he was an undergraduate.
The workshop was well attended and it was lovely to meet all those
people whom I’ve written to but not met.
Barry Morrell (a talented NZ poet) entertained us, too, with his
stories, songs and dances. Jim is
talking about setting one of Barry’s poems to music. It will be an opera about Hinemoa, the
beautiful Maori maiden who swam out to an island in the middle of Lake Rotorua
to meet her lover whom she had been forbidden to see.
While I was at Catherine’s we met Lynley Dodd,
children’s author and illustrator, (of “Hairy MacLairy” fame) and took her
around the haiku pathway. She was duly
impressed and had a lovely afternoon despite the windy conditions. Janice regaled us with the news of the Aussie
poets and we spent hours walking, talking, and generally catching up with
events of the past year.
I sent some poems to SideWaLK (Aus) and the
editor, Richard Hillman, suggested that I send them onto a Chinese-Australian
magazine called Otherland, edited by Ouyang Yu.
Also received several mags with my work in them and much praise for a
couple of articles I’d sent overseas.
I had a card recently from Sam. He is in America at present but is about to
return to his flat in Prague. You could
write to him via SlugFest and I’m sure Mike will forward letters to him. Mike writes often now that he is connected
via email. Slugfest came my way a couple of days ago, so you should be
receiving your copy shortly. It’s been nice to read your work in various
overseas mags.
I haven’t heard anything from Mr Bahri regarding the
anthology. Last time he contacted me (about a month ago) he said the book was
at the binders, so I can only hope it will soon be here. Some of the poets are getting a little
agitated and I’ve been receiving calls and letters from some of them wondering
what is going on.
Now it’s back to the grindstone. I spent all of Friday
at work preparing for the final term of the year. Our rolls are up and we have full sessions,
which is a blessing. 10 new little
people to welcome to the world of kindy on Wednesday.
Love,
Pat
10.
4 November 2000
Dear Ram,
I hope you are well and have had a good summer. We had one or two days of lovely sunshine but
today it is cold and wet. A good day to
be pounding the keys.
We were very fortunate in having the American haijin,
Jim Kacian, here recently for the Haiku Sounds Festival in Picton, in the South
Island. I am enclosing the NZ Poetry
Society newsletter for you as it carries a report of the meeting.
Jim is hoping to establish a World Haiku Association,
or a worldwide web site. By setting up a
web site there is no president (everyone wants to be the president!), no
secretary (no one wants to be the secretary!), and no membership fees. It will be a huge undertaking to begin from
scratch to collect haiku for a web site, so no doubt NZ would work from the two
NZ anthologies edited by Cyril Childs. An interesting subject.
I’ve had one or two emails from Mr. Bahri regarding
the anthology but still no sight of it.
He assures me it will be arriving in early November. Meanwhile I am
collaborating on a book of haiku with Dr Kanwar Dinesh Singh, and will follow
that with a collection of my own poetry.
I’ve had a very creative couple of weeks writing about
20 poems all in the same style: 1/2/3 lines in a 3 stanza format. I think some of them have worked well. Three have been put on a friend’s web site,
and I have sent some to Australia and others to Britain. Will have to wait now
and see what eventuates.
It’s been nice to see your reviews, articles, poems
and haiku springing up from time to time between the covers of mags.
I’ve recently finished my last assignment and hope to
receive my BA early next year. It’s been
hard work to fit it in between everything else: family, work and writing, but
hopefully will be worth the effort.
Love,
Pat
11.
30 December 2000
Dear Ram,
It was great to receive Christmas letter, greetings
and good wishes and to hear all the latest news. You must be very proud of your son and it’s
so nice to see them growing up happy in what they are doing.
I’m sorry to hear about you not being able to find a
publisher for your ms. If I come across
anything I’ll let you know. I will also
keep an eye open for your work and photocopy it to send you.
My writing is going well. I’m still waiting for the hardback versions
of the anthology I edited to arrive. Mr
Bahri told me he had sent you a copy of the mag version and I was hoping to
hear what you thought of it. I’ve sent
off my ms of “Deuce” but haven’t yet heard from Kanwar Dinesh Singh to say that
he has received it. At the moment I am
preparing the ms of a selection of my poems to be called “Accepting
Summer”. I’ve just taken over as
co-editor of the magazine WinterSpin from
Catherine and am keeping busy reading poets’ submissions etc. if you have some haiku you’d like to submit
please send me a dozen or so. I’ve also done some reviews for NZ mags.
Catherine is far from well with Parkinson’s Disease
and is hoping to have brain surgery in a month or so to relieve some of her
symptoms. The operation is going to cost
about $10,000, so Catherine has had to limit her spending and has curtailed her
writing. I’m going down to see her next
week and am taking my granddaughter, Rhiannon, with me.
Rhiannon’s father has been shouted a trip for the two
of them to Disneyland by his firm (in lieu of overtime). He is a stone mason and has been working long
hours on granite and marble fixtures for
some mansion in Auckland.
We had a great Christmas. It seemed to go on for a long time as it fell after the weekend. We had a party on Christmas Eve at my son
Bob’s in-laws, then did some touring around on Christmas Day to fit in
everyone’s families and dinner at my daughter Kathryin’s, and on Boxing Day all
the family gathered at my place for dinner.
The weather has been awful for the past couple of weeks so there were no
picnics or barbecues.
It sounds as though all my friends back home are in
retirement mode, planning their OEs, changing houses, finding new hobbies
etc. I had a letter from a friend in
Canada to say that he and his wife were planning a trip to NZ in 2002. As I haven’t seen them for 28 years it will
be a joyful reunion. I believe that Mike
Nowak and his wife are also planning a trip to NZ about that time, too. We have
to work until 65 in New Zealand, so I still have a few years hard labour.
Things at work have picked up after a very hard year
when we saw the rolls dropping drastically and had to cut our hours to make
ends meet. We should be starting the year with the rolls full and hopefully
they will stay that way. My colleague is going to be starting her degree this year which will take her out of the centre for one day a week. I’ve finished mine and am awaiting my piece
of paper. My daughter, Kathryn, is going
to do a Post Grad diploma in Media Studies, as well as running a very
successful after-school care programme.
My sons, Andrew and Bob, are fine, working hard,
playing sport and generally enjoying life, although Bob has a lot on his plate
with his young son, Isaac, who is nearly 3 and his stepdaughter, Renee, 9. Isaac is a handful but has the face of an
angel so gets away with murder!
Well, that’s about all for me.
Have a happy New Year.
Love,
Pat
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