Book Eight

FIVE ANZAC

LITURGIES

LEICESTER KYLE


for Richard Taylor

•

A folded land
[1]

HAWARDEN
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]

WAIKARI
[10]
[11]
[12]
[13]
[14]
[15]
[16]

ROTHERHAM
[17]
[18]
[19]
[20]
[21]
[22]
[23]
[24]

CULVERDEN
[25]
[26]
[27]
[28]
[29]
[30]
[31]

WAIAU
[32]
[33]
[34]
[35]
[36]
[37]
[38]
[39]
[40]
[41]
[42]
[43]
[44]

•

© Leicester Kyle, 2000

•

Commentary & References:

Letter to Jack Ross (29/11/00):

Dear Jack,

Here is a copy of 'Anzac Liturgies', more or less complete. Calum Gilmour is applying for a grant from Creative N.Z. to publish it, and they want to see the manuscript before they send that off. I've had several copies made, and send you one for interest, enclosing also a copy of the CV they asked for. I hope it includes all - it's hard to remember what I've done. As you may see, I've dedicated the book to Richard, for all the encouragement he's given, and have sent him a copy too, so that he can decide if he wants it dedicated to him. He may feel it unworthy.

After all this time I find the work a bit inconsequential. Maybe it's due to overlong usage, but as I re-read it the work doesn't seem to say anything much. There is some attractive poetry, but I note lapses of both competence and taste. However, absence might heal the doubts and cleanse the critical faculties.

In spite of such doubts I read on and write with much enjoyment and application, as it has become very much a way of life for me. I'm much enjoying John Geraets' book [X ? (Auckland: Cornerdreamers, 2000)] - at first it seemed impenetrable, but once well in it becomes quite a delight.

Alistair Paterson [editor of Poetry NZ] wrote last week, advising that he considers my poems have too many abstract nouns, adverbs, and adjectives; at base I think he is quite right, but the fault is more in the way these things are used than in the total number - the Language Poets are nowhere near so hard on adverbs abstracts and adjectives as is Alistair, but they are very snappy with them. I will look closely and explore the way, but I am not now so dependent on editors as I once was, and do not need to do as I ought.

How are things going with you, and how has 'Parataxis' [Jack Ross & Gabriel White, A Town Like Parataxis: A Colouring-in Book (Auckland: Perdrix Press, 2000)] done? Judy McNeil has written asking for some poems for the next 'Tongue in Your Ear', so I've sent some. Next week I go to Nelson to do a reading - guilt drives me, as I've turned down a number, and those who advise on such things tell me I ought. I do not find them very happy things, and begrudge the time spent away from my true interests. Did you go to the Waikato launch [of Doors: A Contemporary New Zealand Poetry Selection and Jewels in the Water: Recent New Zealand Poetry for Younger Readers, both edited by Terry Locke (Hamilton: Leaders Press, 2000)]? It might have been quite interesting - I like the books, and enjoy seeing my poems getting about.

Life here continues full and stimulating, keeping me well occupied. Our conservation battle is hotting up, and we work for victory.

I hope you're in good health and spirits too.

Kind regards,

Leicester

P.S. You will see I've taken most of your suggestions.

Leicester Kyle, Residential: Calliope Rd, Millerton, Ph. (03) 782 8608.
Postal: C/O Postal Agency, Ngakawau, Buller, New Zealand.

•

Leicester Kyle. Five Anzac Liturgies. 2000. 2nd ed. Drawings by Philip Trusttum. Auckland: Polygraphia Press, 2003:

Five Anzac Liturgies


Leicester Kyle

•

FIVE ANZAC LITURGIES
Leicester Kyle

Drawings by Philip Trusttum

Published by
Polygraphia Ltd.
P O Box 167 Clearwater Cove
West Harbour
Auckland 1008
NEW ZEALAND

Phone: 09 416 1437
Fax: 09 4161438
Email: orders@polygraphianz.com

www.polygraphianz.com­

Copyright © Polygraphia Ltd 2003

All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without prior permission of the publisher,
Polygraphia Ltd

ISBN 1-877332-08-9

•

Produced and Published by
Polygraphia Ltd
P O Box 167 Clearwater Cove
West Harbour
Auckland 1008
New Zealand

Phone: (09) 416 1437
Fax: (09) 416 1438
Email: orders@polygraphianz.com

www.polygraphianz.com­


ISBN 1-877332-08-9

•

Commentary & References:

FIVE ANZAC LITURGIES

A new book of poems by New Zealand Poet

Leicester Kyle

With original drawings by
Philip Trusttum

Published and Printed by
Polygraphia Ltd.
P O Box 167 Clearwater Cove
West Harbour, Auckland 1008
www.polygraphianz.com­
Ph 09 416 1437
Fax 09 4161438
Email: orders@polygraphianz.com

This set of poems contains five pieces addressed to the South Island towns of Hawarden, Waikari, Rotherham, Culverden and Waiau respectively. Each poem is based round the theme of Anzac Day and how it affects each place addressed. The focus is on Anzac, on the people involved, on the significance of the remembrance in each place.

The poems are enhanced and given atmosphere by the suggestive drawings of Philip Trusttum.

The result is an evocative and attractive book to read and return to over and again.

Price: $22.50 inclusive of GST, plus $2.00 pack & post

Copies can be purchased from the Publisher,
Polygraphia Ltd,
at the address shown above,
or direct from the Author
Leicester Kyle,
C/o Postal Agency
Ngakawau, Buller

•
Editorial Note

The copytext for the facsimile is my own copy of the first (2000) version of Leicester's original photocopied text. The initial copytext for the transcription comes from Microsoft Word files found on the hard-drive of Leicester's computer after his death, emended by reference to the facsimile. Bibliographical details and transcriptions of preliminary details are also given for the first book publication (Auckland: Polygraphia Ltd., 2003).

- Jack Ross,
Mairangi Bay, March 2012.

•

© Leicester Kyle Literary Estate, 2012

•

Book Seven

A
Safe
House

For
A Man

Leicester Kyle

•


[1]

PREFACE

In Millerton, where I live, there is a house that is kept available for any local man who falls into a state of domestic disorder. It is called 'the Back House', because it is at the end of the road at the edge of the bush.

I have taken this idea to house the narrator of this poem; from a silent and separate place he looks into his own separation, and out at the world and the home he has left. Much of the information is from my own recent experiences.

The second shorter work uses one of our early scientific texts to convey a rather creepy sense of disparity between one age and an­other.

The third, a poem sequence, was written while my wife was sicken­ing with a terminal illness. The poems were hidden from her sight, and so well hidden that they were lost for several years.

It is only proper that this book be dedicated to Millerton and its inhabitants.

Leicester Kyle.
July 2000.

•

Contents:

A Safe House For A Man

1. The Refuge
[2]
[3]
[4]

2. Lopped From The Tree
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]

3. What The World Is, (in parenthesis)
[9]
[10]

4. Take My Sting
[11]
[12]
[13]

5. That Small Flower
[14]
[15]
[16]

6. Deep Within The Man
[17]
[18]
[19]

7. The Back House
[20]
[21]
[22]

8. I To The Counsellor
[23]
[24]
[25]
[26]

9. The Doctor
[27]
[28]
[29]

10. To Singh Batchem Singh
In The Morning
[30]
[31]
[32]

11. The Psychiatrist Says
[33]
[34]
[35]

12. Tangled From A Crooked Pole
[36]
[37]
[38]

13. In a Casserole With Towels
[39]
[40]
[41]

9. To Her A Book
[42]
[43]
[44]

The Araneidea
[45]
[46]
[47]
[48]
[49]
[50]
[51]
[52]
[53]
[54]
[55]
[56]
[57]
[58]
[59]
[60]
[61]
[62]
[63]
[64]
[65]
[66]
[67]
[68]
[69]
[70]
[71]
[72]
[73]
[74]
[75]
[76]

Threnos
[77]
[78]
[79]
[80]
[81]
[82]
[83]
[84]
[85]

•

© Leicester Kyle, 2000

•

Commentary & References:

Letter to Jack Ross (24/1/00):

Dear Yog Sugoth,

Here is the 'Necromonicon', not very oldened but I hope it does. The printer nearly drove me mephitic, and I became briefly non-euclidian, but on seeing her become ochreous in turn I calmed down, and accepted the inevitably inferior. The original has been sent to the publisher, where I hope it prospers.

Today is a very dark wet day, so I'm doing such works as these, and catching up on correspondence. At other times I'm relaxing into 'Lamentations', just for a week, as next week it will be necessary to prepare the mailing for 'Spin', and to do some work on the orbital mailbags: I hope all the rest of your long southern sojourn has gone well; from what I remember it is, as I write, still going, but I am positioned upon your return home, at which point my 'now' will be your past.
...

•

Leicester Kyle. A Safe House for a Man. 2000. 2nd ed. Auckland: Polygraphia Press, 2000:

A
Safe
House


For
A Man



Leicester Kyle

•

Published by Polygraphia Ltd
P O Box 167, Clearwater Cove
West Harbour
Auckland 1008
NEW ZEALAND

Phone: 64 9 416 1437
Fax: 64 9 4161438

www.polygraphianz.com­

Email: orders@polygraphianz.com

Copyright © Polygraphia Ltd 2000

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without prior permission of the Publisher,
Polygraphia Ltd



ISBN 0-9582121-5-5

•

Commentary & References:

POLYGRAPHIA LTD

Editing Writing Publishing

NEW IN JULY 2000

A
Safe
House

For
A Man

Leicester Kyle

P O Box 167 Clearwater Cove
West Harbour
Auckland 1008 NZ
Phone: 09 416 1437
Fax: 09 4161438
www.polygraphianz.com­

Dr Jack Ross of Massey University writes:

The landscape of Leicester Kyle's long semi-narrative poem, A Safe House for a Man, will be familiar to most of us: separation, self-analysis, acknowledgment of loss. There's little that's recondite or difficult about this poetry, and yet the craft and subtle intelligence of its author come through in every line.

The title poem is accompanied by two others: The Araneidea - an oddly disturbing account of how to 'make good-looking, sightly cabinet objects' from live spiders; and Threnos - a moving elegy for the poet's wife Miriel. They are strongly linked to it in theme, and flesh it out into a major and strikingly original contribution to contemporary New Zealand poetry.

RRP: $29.50 (+ $2 postage & packing)

•
Editorial Note

The copytext for the facsimile is my own copy of the first (2000) version of Leicester's original photocopied text. The initial copytext for the transcription comes from Microsoft Word files found on the hard-drive of Leicester's computer after his death, emended by reference to the facsimile. Bibliographical details and transcriptions of preliminary details are also given for the first book publication (Auckland: Polygraphia Ltd., 2000).

- Jack Ross,
Mairangi Bay, March 2012.

•

© Leicester Kyle Literary Estate, 2012

•