"It is a good divine that follows his own instructions; I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done than to be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching."
Portia, The Merchant of Venice, Act I, Scene II.



Friday, July 6, 2012

Unpacking the possibilities...


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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