Literature Remix 3rd

• 

  Sponsored by:

  New Zealand Post

"The Garden of O" by Bill Nelson

http://thisiswriting.blogspot.com/2011/09/pick-n-mix.html

Description

This "very fine lyric poem" remixes several of the authors' works conjuring "up a new world from all the worlds created by the source texts" and intriguing the judges with its "perfect blend of mystery and exposure". Category sponsored by New Zealand Post

Runners up in the Literature Remix category win a fine selection of Victoria University Press books. All 5 winners will be published in a Creative Commons licensed Mebooks e-book alongside the original authors’ works.

Selected judges' comments

"This is simply a very fine lyric poem. It would not have occurred to me to look for sources, if I wasn't tipped off, but reading back to the sources it is impressive how thoroughly the words have been repurposed."

"Bill's work is the one which uses lines from the source texts in their most complete state. Many people tried this approach but Bill's is the most successful I think. I also like the way he has incorporated a poem from outside the source texts and especially one that remixes another poet's work. I love the way this process echoes in the work. It becomes like a series of mirrors reflecting smaller and smaller images of themselves infinitely.

Bill alters the source texts with a very light touch and I think the success of his piece over others is that as well as creating a pastiche this piece is also an original and engaging piece of poetry. Much of its sense is in its music and I love it when poetry displays this kind of logic. I think this work conjures up a new world from all the worlds created by the source texts.

The appeal of this work I think is that it has the perfect blend of mystery and exposure. My first reading was enjoyable for the music and on returning to hear that music again, I became intrigued by the story the poem tells. I am still re-reading it now and getting new things each time I read it."

"Nelson's work takes the reader on an absorbing journey. His word combinations are intriguing (for example, 'bright corrugations/of being and nonbeing' made me think about the presence and absence of space in the forms of corrugated iron). I also liked the sparseness of the language in this work; the final part (we never hear/the dense blue shadow/of each others' voices.) reminded me of Baxter's 'High Country Weather'."

The author's description of the entry:

This is an original artwork that takes the fabric of NZ and international poets and combines them into something new and unique. Like a quilt your mum made, it's partially you and it's partially her and it's partially off the backs of people who wore the old t-shirts she made it out of. But ultimately I really couldn't tell why it works, because that depends on the reader, so I'd suggest you go read it and decide for yourself. There's not 'source code' or users manual with poetry. It's pretty simple you either like it or you don't. It either makes you think or feel something or it doesn't. No explanation can help you with that. Good luck

Sources

Poems from the Mix and Mash website (Creative Commons license) by: Lynn Jenner, Hinemoana Baker, Airini Beautrais and Bernadette Hall. A poem by Yusef Komunyakaa called 'The Day I saw Barack Obama Reading Derek Walcott's Collected Poems'. Bill emailed the author asking for permission to use the fragments he chose for this competition