Mark Pirie


Slaves to Love (Money)

12 pretty girls locked in a van “hey, unlock the door man”

(paid) “it’s ok we’re from the FBI (tv)

you’re safe now” (script)

Tradition

For Alan Broadbent, jazz musician and producer, after hearing him talk on Radio NZ

You talk of music as
something sacred,
something remarkable

and that's how I feel poetry
should be too, something not
simply written or observed but

made with Art in mind; it can have
personality, sure, a song of sorts, but
to me it is like a psalm passed down

from one poet to the next —
Tradition and the Individual Talent
as Eliot once wrote;

they were the Greats
sure, and we must learn from
them all, bring something to

that tradition; that's how I hear you
talking. You mention all those
Great American standards that

are now being reinvented by
a new generation; a sign that
the music hasn't died, that the flame

of Art keeps on burning
long after the musicians
and poets have died,

and to reach that final swing,
we must all keep learning;
we must give all we can to our Art.



A Less Intense Poem

Even tho' we're slowly dying
It's like the Movie Star says:
'Shit happens.'




Mark Pirie is the author/editor of many collections of poetry. His own poetry has appeared in a dozen countries worldwide. He edited/compiled the cricket poetry anthology A Tingling Catch: A Century of New Zealand Cricket Poems 1864-2009 (HeadworX, 2010), which was well received in New Zealand and overseas. In 2014, he edited a special football issue of his journal broadsheet to coincide with the World Cup in Brazil. He is currently writing a non-fiction book on his grandfather Tom Lawn, a businessman/rugby player 1920-60 in New Zealand.
 
 
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