 |
 |
 |
JO THORPE was born in Wellington in 1948. She grew up in Gisborne and after graduating from Auckland University in 1968, lived for years at a stretch in south east Asia, New York and Australia. Since the late 1990’s, she has had poems published in a range of periodicals and anthologies including Poetry NZ, Listener, NZ Books, JAAM and Takahe. In 1998 she completed the Whitireia Writing Course and three years later graduated with an MA in Creative Writing from Victoria University. She currently teaches dance history at the New Zealand School of Dance and her first book of poetry Len & Other Poems was published in February 2003 by Steele Roberts Books.
Thorpe comments: ‘At the time of writing, I was reading Isaiah Berlin’s essays on the roots of Romanticism – hence the references to Rousseau and Novalis’ “search for the blue flower”. I had also just discovered Jorie Graham and the phrasing of “Windscreen” owes a great deal to her. Graham’s poetry has continued to inspire me ever since and it is only in retrospect that I see the connection between what so appeals to me in her work (her book Errancy has been described as a “pilgrimage in which the heart’s longing is guide”) and what was identified by Berlin as the Romantic notion of depth – inexhaustibility, unembraceability –
Then (of course!) there were the roses themselves. When I “aired” the poem for the first time, a couple of readers had reservations about the last line, but subsequent attempts on my part to change it failed. I think this was because, as I was writing the poem and nearing its end, I realised it always was going to be about that last line.’
|
|