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Ron Riddell

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Travelogue
Poetry in Motion – a New Zealand Poet in the U.S.A. PDF Print E-mail
I will begin this poetic travelogue/commentary with the handy catch-phrase, "Poetry in Motion," which is also the name given to a special annual poetic series of events in the U.S., timed to coincide with the advent of National Poetry Month. This week I have had the honour of participating in the Los Angeles Poetry in Motion event, which featured a dozen leading poets from Los Angeles and other parts of California.

I have been on the road for just a few weeks, having left New Zealand on the 11th of April, bound for the 13th Austin International Poetry Festival, deep in the heart of Texas. Austin is in fact the state capital of Texas and is renown for its cultural life and burgeoning population, which has more than quadrupled in the last forty years. The current population stands at little less than a million, the new airport is more spacious and well-organised than LA International and everywhere the convoluted spirals of new freeway systems are sprouting up.

The pace of life in contemporary urban U.S.A. is extreme. This includes the poetic scene. Hurtling along interminable motorways from one event to another at the AIPF,( where there were some 200 poets participating), I began to get the speed wobbles. Fortunately, none of my wheels came off. At least none that I noticed, last time I checked.
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Poetic Pilgrimage to Central America PDF Print E-mail
May the 18th, Thursday.

I've been up since 3.30am, battling a winter cold and an intermittently functional internet connection with colleagues in El Salvador and Costa Rica. The biggest challenge at the beginning of this particular poetic mission is that my connecting flight from Los Angeles to San Salvador leaves at 1.35 am, on the morning of the same day, some nine hours before my flight from Auckland is due to touch down on the hallowed ground of the U.S.A.

"No hay problema," says Pablo Benitez, on his crackling Salvardorean cell phone. He is one to it and will have emailed me a new ticket by the time I touch down in Auckland, later the same morning. Listo. Muy bien. I'm heading back to

Latin America. My Colombian wife, Saray Torres, says I must be strong! I'm sitting in the main pavilion of Wellington Airport, which bears the title, "Wild at heart", barely awake, my eyes streaming, thinking she might be right.

Monday, the 12th of June, 2006. I am sitting in the gathering twilight at San Jose International Airport, Costa Rica, waiting for the early evening flight which will take me back to Los Angeles, via Guatemala - the first leg of my journey home to New Zealand, after nearly a month on the poetic trail in Central America. I have just said my goodbyes to my good friend, Norberto Salinas, Costa Rican poet and director of The Costa Rican International Poetry Festival. And now I am returning home, with my batteries charged, with my health restored a thousand-fold.

This has been the fifth year of the festival. It has been a great honour for me to share the podium here with some Latin America's leading poets, including Ernesto Cardenal, Nicaragua, Raul Zurita, Chile, Vicente Muleiro, Argentina, Claribel Alegría, El Salvador/Nicaragua and Antonio Ramirez, Puerto Rico. Ten days ago during the festival, my new book, Raukura, which is dedicated to Te Whiti O Rongamai and the people of Parihaka, was launched during the festival here. Published by La Casa de Poesia, Costa Rica, it has had a rousing reception, with poems like "Blue Yellow/Azul Amarillo" and the title poem, "Raukura," being particular favourites with audiences.
 



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