are human beings the only living things to say goodbye?
well imagine. you’re a poet.
- kim hill to james- brown- the- new- zealand- poet, upon his not knowing details of international literary drama.
the interview had lots of funny moments (mp3: without the music, but try to track down the ivor cutler song if you can) & convinced me to buy his most recent collection of poetry, the year of the bicycle.
writing of the book coincided with my own year of bicycling to work, and probably for that reason i’d expected this book to have bicycle commuter poems within (descriptions of the book reference j.b.’s own bike commute). there are none, but there are mountain biking poems, and quite a few of the poems without bicycles in them at all have the sense of evaluating a life from the distance and perspective that bicycling gives. & there are things like this:
As violins are singing trees, a bicycle
is an orchestra of the body.from 1. Body and Bike.
i’ve read the book only once through, but bits of it have stuck in my head & i’m eager to read it again. a more official-style recommendation: this book was a poetry finalist in the recent montanas.
see also: the year of the mountain and other poems by james brown on the NZETC site, his nz book month blog, & buy the year of the bicycle from fishpond.