Memories or memoirs?

Recall is an interesting aspect of writing about one's own life. Dame Cath Tizard in Cat amongst the pigeons writes frequently that details "have vanished in the mists of my memory". True to the events or not, this is a very readable book covering the political life of an extremely busy woman and highlighting some major changes in New Zealand life over the last 50 years. She revels in the fact that there are now many more women in influential positions. This book is full of anecdotes, often amusing, about people she has met, from Royals to schoolchildren, and includes her outspoken comments about any unkindness, unfairness or discrimination that she met anywhere in the world. In her conclusion she quotes Aldous Huxley "it's a bit embarrassing to have been concerned with the human problem all one's life and find at the end that one has no more to offer by way of advice than - we should try to be a little kinder". Cath Tizard's kindness has had amazing repercussions in New Zealand and they are well-documented here.

Muddy metaphors

Michele Roberts is an articulate, feminist writer; how is it that I have only previously read one of her books? I met her last month at the Beverley Literature Festival and learnt about her interests in poetry, Jane Austen and French culture. All of these appear in her recent book of short stories called Mud and subtitled stories of sex and love.

Mud, the title story explores a squidgy, sensual relationship but the idea of mud is used as a metaphor in many of the other stories in various ways including how aspects of writing can be compared to mixing earth and water to make mud.
Michele Roberts writes a story in 3 weeks but takes 3 years to produce a novel. Just out is her memoir of the 70s Paper houses that has taken 30 years to think about. A metaphor she used to talk about organising her memories and creating the book is that of ironing and putting all the neatly ironed garments into a tidy cupboard.
I'll let you know if the book really is like that.

Mesostic poems

Found some wonderful poems in the Yorkshire Sculpture Park today. Arranged in a greenhouse were plant pots with labels that were poems forming the names of plants.

A mesostic poem is a vertical phrase which is
intersected by lines of horizontal text. These mesostics by Alec Finlay are composed of a name-stem and word-branches and the poems reveal something of the plant's character. The words used were very apt and described the plants charmingly. In this interview, the poet and propogator explains his approach to the project.

A unique way of bringing visual and written art together.