Because introductions are a curious genre, generally a display of vain
self-deprecation, I'm side-stepping by posting this introduction, which was
compiled by Kate Camp for the New Zealand Book Council website:

HOWARD, David (1959 - ) is a poet and founding editor of Takahe, a small
literary magazine which has been the first to publish many well-known New
Zealand writers. He describes his writing as "gnarled, metaphysical poety
which fosters rather than forbids tenderness."
Reviewing Howard's first collection, In the First Place (1991), Kendrick
Smithyman writes of "[a] sense of shock, and uncommon astonishment at the
extraordinary poise which is part and parcel of these usually quite short
pieces." The volume features photographs by Paul Swadel.

David Eggleton writes of Howard's second collection, Holding Company (1995):
"Poetry itself is treated as a form of prayer, both sacred and profane, but
rife with little idiosyncracies, sudden switches of pace, tone and meaning
so as to create an ambiguous haze, almost at times an erotic reverie...".

A third volume Shebang: Collected Poems 1980 - 2000, is due to be published
by Steele Roberts in 2000. Kapka Kassabova describes it as "'A most welcome
return by one of New Zealand's finest and most idiosyncratic poets... As
always, his poems provoke and delight with their perfect lightness of
touch... Howard's poems dwell in that elusive zone between the terrible and
the sublime."

The author of poems described as "technically dazzling" and teeming with
"glittering figures of speech", it is perhaps fitting that Howard has worked
as a pyrotechnic and special effects supervisor for acts including Metallica
and Janet Jackson. He is currently living in Los Angeles.

(KC.)





 KAPAI
KIDS AUTHORS PICTURES AND INFORMATION

Some Questions for David Howard

Where do you live?

In a large white house that is over a hundred years old; it overlooks the
Avon River in the provincial town of Christchurch, on the East Coast of the
South Island of New Zealand. I also have a small and ugly office in Los
Angeles on the West Coast of America.

What books do you read?

The books I read are as mixed as the sweets I eat; some authors are fizzy
like sherbet while others are dark as licorice. I enjoy authors who lived
many centuries ago because they show me that the core of writing is
empathy - an ability to stand in someone else's shoes and see the world
through their eyes. This is important because I believe that evil is only
possible when people lack empathy, so I regard acts of the imagination as
inherently moral. The books I ponder over are often about the nature of the
imagination and the way it conditions our behaviour; these books are by
authors with wonderful names - Plotinus, Dionysius the Aeropagite, Julian of
Norwich, Fulke Greville.

Who is your favourite author?

Robert Grosseteste, who was born in the village of Stow Langtoft (what a
great name!) in Suffolk, England, around 1170 and died on 9 October 1253.
Believing that 'All created things are mirrors which reflect the Creator' he
asked questions like why do stars twinkle? What is the cause of thunder? Why
is the earth covered with water? My preferred work by him is 'Hexaemeron (On
the Six Days of Creation)', which was probably completed around 1235 - it's
so long ago that no one knows for sure. I like the idea that someone who
woke up to the beauty of the world over seven hundred years ago can still
wake me up to it; it is as if I can smell cherry blossom or hear the rain
more clearly after reading Grosseteste.

How do you think up your ideas?

I trust in language the way a snowboarder trusts in his (or her) snowboard,
by letting it direct me; so, even if I decide when and how to execute turns,
I still have to attend to my materials if I'm not to lose balance. The most
important thing in writing is not a 'thing' at all - you cannot measure it
like a piece of wood or a stone - and that is to have faith. Writing is
about spirit.

What is the best thing about being an author?

Writing drives off boredom as surely as a high wind removes polluted air
from the city.

Some Questions for Primary Schools

What sort of pets do you have?

Because I travel a lot I don't have any pets - it would be unfair to leave
them behind, scratching at the window. One day I want to share a lighthouse
with a pirate's parrot.

What is your favourite colour?

Blue, the blue of the sea and the sky; the blue of a beautiful girl's eyes;
the blue of a candle that spits its wax just before going out.

What is your favourite food?

Shepherd's Pie because, when frost is on the ground and all the windows in
your house are steamed up so you can draw on them, the pie fills your
stomach with summer. Soon you are warm all over.

Do you have favourite movie?

'Mirror' by the Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky; it has a scene where a
woman rinses her hair in the farmyard while, behind her, a barn burns. I
like this surprising combination of water and fire.

Do you play any games?

Blind Man's Buff because you never know what you'll find, which is how it is
with writing: words take you somewhere unexpected.

What is the most fun thing about being an author?

You get to stay in bed on rainy days and, on windy days, while the trees bow
and scrape the ground, you can fly kites so high they almost rub the bellies
of clouds.

How do you make books?

I use words to glue ideas together.

Where do you go for your holidays?

I go to the Otago Peninsula near Dunedin, where hundreds of birds make me
want to grow wings; I also go to Leipzig in Germany, which is a medieval
town that pricks the sky with steeples. J.S. Bach composed most of his music
there, music which I adored as a boy - his harpsichord pieces still feel
like sun-warmed water trickling across my skin.

What was the naughtiest thing you ever did at school?

I nailed another pupil's desk shut. He was a bully who threatened other
children so I didn't feel guilty (well, only a little).

Some Questions for Secondary Schools

How did you get started?

I was bored and tried to find a way not to be. Writing was my way and I
learnt to write by reading others. It is always more important to listen
than to talk.

Who inspired you when you were getting started?

I read the French poet, Rimbaud, and was amazed by his lines: "One evening I
seated Beauty on my knees. And I found her bitter. And I cursed her [from 'A
Season in Hell' translated by Louise Varese].

What advice would you give to an aspiring writer?

To read and to travel widely; both activities make you aware that there are
many ways of viewing your self, the world, and whatever's beyond the world.

Is it difficult to make a living writing in New Zealand?

Yes, so I don't try; instead I make a living by executing firework displays.
Instead of using a pen on paper I write with light on the night sky.

What were you like as a teenager?

Because I was frightened that I knew nothing I behaved as if I knew
everything. I was even more arrogant and smug than the elders I despised. My
adult life has been about falling hard in order to get up again, humbled but
strengthened. I think that the process of making a poem is not so different
from this.