Final
Keynote: Cilla
McQueen - New Zealand Poet Laureate 2009-2011
“Unpacking the possibilities of metaphor is
a poet’s pleasure.”
Both Cilla’s parents were teachers. She
loved English and History and taught languages at Columba College. Her
knowledge of English language is “continually developing.”
At primary school her writing was mostly
about horses and skiing…
She began keeping a journal in the 1970s.
Her first book, Homing In, was
published in 1981.
“Metaphor’s layers of possible meanings can
enable a poem to say more than it seems to say.”
“Reading, both silently and aloud, is very
important.”
“I think a real book is more memorable than
its electronic version.”
“Perhaps reading aloud is even more
important nowadays.”
“I like the human role of teacher as
interface.”
I like the fact that she wrote a poem
“surreptitiously” in the classroom while teaching! J
McQueen has been a full time poet since she
was the Robert Burns Fellow in the mid 1980s.
We were privileged to hear her read three
of her poems:
·
To Ben, At The Lake
·
Learning to Read
·
Revolution
A few other links:
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