Today our thoughts are all of Rose.
We honour a wonderful writer, tutor and human being and send love to Rose's whānau and friends.
Rose passed away on May 3 2023 and will be greatly missed.
Her book of poems My Thoughts Are All Of Swimming won the John O'Connor Award and was published in 2022.
Teaching the Poets
( an excerpt)
VIII.
I throw these kids the beach they come out with ‘driftwood bones’ ‘succulents’ ‘a dog with an ice cream’ as though they pull the tide in around them – a drawstring bag with everything sloshing away inside If I tell them to sit still the words appear – content or form or both together
Put this on the whiteboard:
The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.
Write it down and then watch the breathless dog in every pen the wild strumming of black on to white.
by Rose Collins