Poem of the Month: Learning to ride, by Keith Westwater

I attended the very successful launch of Keith Westwater’s new book No One Home at Unity Books Wellington last Thursday night. No One Home is described on the front cover as “a boyhood memoir in letters and poems”, and lest that and the front cover image appear to paint a picture of an idyllic youth, that’s far from the case.

I’m just beginning to dip into this fascinating mixture of memoir, record of Army life and poetry collection, but here is one poem that caught my eye right away. I am looking forward to reading the rest of this collection, and then reviewing it!

Learning to ride

Not long after my complaints
about the long walk to school

how everyone had one
so why couldn’t I

you came home one night
with a two-wheeler bike –

a Monarch (boy’s, second-hand)
front handbrake, rear pedal –

no bell, chain-guard or gears.
You bought it, no doubt

off a ‘for sale’ ad in the local rag
painted it fire-engine red

showed me how to use the pump
oil the chain, crank and hubs

told me to level the pedals
before I stood on one

straddled the cross bar
sat on the black saddle seat


while you palmed my back
steadied the handle bars

said to push with my feet –
one then the other – coaxed me


to steer straight, keep upright
as we practised setting off.

When I came a cropper
skinned my arms or knees

you painted them orange
set me up for another go

until I was able to wobble solo
up and down life’s street.

If only that were so.

Credit: “Learning to ride” by Keith Westwater is reproduced by permission of the author and the publisher, Mākaro Press, from Keith’s new book No One Home (Mākaro Press, 2018).
Tim says: Very like my own experiences of learning to ride a bike (in my case, in Otatara, south of Invercargill) – until the brutal end.

Science Fiction At The Auckland Writers’ Festival, 19-20 May: Neal Stephenson, Karen Joy Fowler, tribute to Ursula Le Guin

This looks like quite a weekend at the Auckland Writers’ Festival for science fiction, fantasy (and literary fiction) fans: with Neal Stephenson, Karen Joy Fowler, and, even better, a tribute to Ursula Le Guin. Not sure I can be there, but I hope you can!

Auckland Writers’ Festival link: http://www.writersfestival.co.nz/

AUCKLAND WRITERS FESTIVAL
EVENT 86: THE BIG IDEAS OF NEAL STEPHENSON
SATURDAY MAY 19 – 8.45-10.00PM, ASB THEATRE, AOTEA SQUARE
Tickets available at ticketmaster.co.nz, 0800 111 999, or at TM Box Office: Earlybird $37.50, Standard (15 Mayonwards) $42; Students $20.00
New York Times bestselling author Neal Stephenson is renowned for works seething with big ideas, both innovative and complex in their genius, including Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, The Diamond Age, Anathem, and his latest Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O co-written with Nicole Galland. Stephenson is also one of the world’s leading designers of augmented reality in his role as “Chief Futurist” at Magic Leap, a company that is transforming the way humans interact with story. David Larsen unpicks Stephenson’s boundless imagination and creativity.

EVENT 47: COMPLETELY BESIDE OURSELVES: KAREN JOY FOWLER
SATURDAY MAY 19 – 10.00-11.00AM, ASB THEATRE, AOTEA CENTRE
Earlybird $20, Standard (15 May onwards) $25; Students $12.50; Concession Pass (multiple buy, shareable): $16/$17
Best-selling author Karen Joy Fowler is a maverick, with novels and short stories spanning science fiction, fantasy and literary fiction, including the Man Booker Prize finalist We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, The New York Times bestseller The Jane Austen Book Club, and the PEN/Faulkner fiction finalist Sister Noon. She is the co-founder of the James Tiptree Jr. Award – given to works which increase understanding of gender – and is the president of the Clarion Foundation which supports the teaching of sci-fi and fantasy writing. She speaks with Kate De Goldi. Supported by Platinum Patrons Pip Muir & Kit Toogood.
EVENT 106: ODE TO URSULA
SUNDAY MAY 20 – 1.30-2.30PM HEARTLAND FESTIVAL ROOM, AOTEA SQUARE
Earlybird $20, Standard (15 May onwards) $25; Students $12.50; Concession Pass (multiple buy, shareable): $16/$17
In memory of the extraordinary Ursula Le Guin, writers and fans Karen Joy Fowler and Elizabeth Knox join David Larsen to share stories of their first encounters with her work and explore the legacy of the writer David Mitchell describes as a “crafter of fierce, focused, fertile dreams”.