DEATHWALKER'S GUIDE TO LIFE SEASON 2
EPISODE 5
Death & Grief meets Poetry & Songwriting
Pictured above: Nick Feint playing guitar in Golden Bay, Tasman. Image courtesy the artist, from his Facebook page..
July 3, 2022
EPISODE 5
Death & Grief meets Poetry & Songwriting
Death in Print: Actions & Travels: How Poetry Works by Anna Jackson, Meet: Singer/songwriter Nick Feint Death on Screen: 'Good Bones' by Maggie Smith
Listen to Episode 5 on the following podcast platforms
Or, if you've already listened to the show, scroll down for more info and links . . .
DEATH IN PRINT
Actions & Travels: How Poetry Works by Anna Jackson
Anna Jackson is a New Zealand poet who grew up in Auckland and now lives in Island Bay, Wellington. She has a DPhil from Oxford and is an associate professor in English literature at Victoria University of Wellington.
Actions & Travels: How Poetry Works is her latest book and is a brilliant introduction to how poetry works through one hundred poems. Jackson examines poems by poets who are long dead as well as by those who are busting into the contemporary poetry scene, both here in Aotearoa and around the world.
When you search for top poems about death online, Google helpfully shows you a list of other related questions, including What poet writes about death? Perhaps the question should really be What poet doesn't write about death?
Poetry (and as we will explore very soon, songwriting) can evoke emotions in a way that perhaps other forms of writing cannot.
In Jackson's book, there's a helpful index and the back and 'death & grief' is one of the key topics, with no less than 34 pages exploring poems about end of life and bereavement.
The book opens with a short poem by John Keats, which Jackson describes as the most haunting representation she knows of the power of poetry to reach out to another person, even after death.
Actions & Travels: How Poetry Works is her latest book and is a brilliant introduction to how poetry works through one hundred poems. Jackson examines poems by poets who are long dead as well as by those who are busting into the contemporary poetry scene, both here in Aotearoa and around the world.
When you search for top poems about death online, Google helpfully shows you a list of other related questions, including What poet writes about death? Perhaps the question should really be What poet doesn't write about death?
Poetry (and as we will explore very soon, songwriting) can evoke emotions in a way that perhaps other forms of writing cannot.
In Jackson's book, there's a helpful index and the back and 'death & grief' is one of the key topics, with no less than 34 pages exploring poems about end of life and bereavement.
The book opens with a short poem by John Keats, which Jackson describes as the most haunting representation she knows of the power of poetry to reach out to another person, even after death.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT ANNA JACKSON AND HER BOOKS
Find out more about Action & Travels here.
Read the poems featured in Action & Travels.
Find out more about Anna Jackson.
Find out more about Anna Jackson's other books here.
Find out more about Action & Travels here.
Read the poems featured in Action & Travels.
Find out more about Anna Jackson.
Find out more about Anna Jackson's other books here.
KŌRERO / CONVERSATION
Meet Nick Feint
Nick Feint, who is based in Golden Bay, has been playing guitar and writing songs for over 25 years. He is the father of two (about to be three) and a successful jeweller.
Nick has always loved playing music and has just released his second album, Next Exit from Babylon.
He brings heartfelt storytelling to his songwriting style and draws audiences into his performances with his authentic Kiwi style.
Three of the tracks on the album were inspired by Nick's experiences with the fragility of life, and loss and grief.
'Another Good Man' is inspired by Nick's relationship with his good friend and mentor Peter Hopkins who died of cancer on Daffodil Day in 2008. The track was recorded and produced by Levity Beet Music and features Charlotte Yates on backing vocals.
'The Longest Day' and 'Song for Theo' explore the emotional terrain Nick and his ex-wife Sybille had to navigate when their first son was born at 25 weeks. It was touch and go for the first week, with Theo almost dying three times.
Theo is now a strapping young 18-year-old man who is following in his father's footsteps as a musician.
Nick nominated his song, 'Grace', as one he would like played at his funeral or wake. You can listen to it in our 'Farewell songs' playlist.
Nick has always loved playing music and has just released his second album, Next Exit from Babylon.
He brings heartfelt storytelling to his songwriting style and draws audiences into his performances with his authentic Kiwi style.
Three of the tracks on the album were inspired by Nick's experiences with the fragility of life, and loss and grief.
'Another Good Man' is inspired by Nick's relationship with his good friend and mentor Peter Hopkins who died of cancer on Daffodil Day in 2008. The track was recorded and produced by Levity Beet Music and features Charlotte Yates on backing vocals.
'The Longest Day' and 'Song for Theo' explore the emotional terrain Nick and his ex-wife Sybille had to navigate when their first son was born at 25 weeks. It was touch and go for the first week, with Theo almost dying three times.
Theo is now a strapping young 18-year-old man who is following in his father's footsteps as a musician.
Nick nominated his song, 'Grace', as one he would like played at his funeral or wake. You can listen to it in our 'Farewell songs' playlist.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT NICK FEINT
Follow Nick Feint on Facebook.
Download Next Exit from Babylon from Bandcamp.
Find out more about Nick's jewellery business, StoneArrow.
Follow Nick Feint on Facebook.
Download Next Exit from Babylon from Bandcamp.
Find out more about Nick's jewellery business, StoneArrow.
'Another Good Man'
by Nick Feint
DEATH ON SCREEN
'Good Bones' by Maggie Smith
One of the poems Anna Jackson included in her latest book, Actions & Travels, which I talked about at the beginning of today’s show, is ‘Good Bones’ by American poet Maggie Smith.
Originally published in the journal Waxwing in June 2016, ‘Good Bones’ went viral on Twitter back in 2016, in the wake of a nightclub shooting in Florida, cementing Smith as one of the leading poetic voices in the Twitterverse. As Dan Kois writes in an article published on Slate, the poem spread all over social median because it wittily distilled a very particular feeling of being afraid about the world and daunted by the challenge of raising kids in.
Thanks to the Poetry Foundation you can listen to Maggie Smith reading Good Bones (see below for link).
‘Good Bones’ continues to be one of those poems that is shared widely on social media. Wikipedia estimates it has been read by at least one million people.
Originally published in the journal Waxwing in June 2016, ‘Good Bones’ went viral on Twitter back in 2016, in the wake of a nightclub shooting in Florida, cementing Smith as one of the leading poetic voices in the Twitterverse. As Dan Kois writes in an article published on Slate, the poem spread all over social median because it wittily distilled a very particular feeling of being afraid about the world and daunted by the challenge of raising kids in.
Thanks to the Poetry Foundation you can listen to Maggie Smith reading Good Bones (see below for link).
‘Good Bones’ continues to be one of those poems that is shared widely on social media. Wikipedia estimates it has been read by at least one million people.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT MAGGIE SMITH
Listen to Maggie Smith reading 'Good Bones'.
Find out more about Maggie Smith.
Listen to Maggie Smith reading 'Good Bones'.
Find out more about Maggie Smith.
Listen to previous Season 2 episodes
OUT APRIL 24, 2022
EPISODE 1
Death in Print: Death and its Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Beautiful Lessons by Becky Aud-Jennison, Meet: Deathwalker and author Becky Aud-Jennison, Death on Screen: 'Good Grief'
OUT MAY 8, 2022
EPISODE 2
Death in Print: What Days Are For by Robert Dessaix, Meet: Septuagenerian climate activist Bill McEwan, Death on Screen: Nelson Poetry Map featuring Bill Manhire's poem, 'Kevin'
OUT MAY 22, 2022
EPISODE 3
Death in Print: An Hour to Live, An Hour to Love by Richard Carlson, Meet: Storyteller Tanya Batt, Death on Screen: Imagined Worlds website
OUT JUNE 5, 2022
EPISODE 4
Death in Print: Wild Darkness by Eva Saulitis, Meet: Natural burial pioneer Dawn Jones and her daughter Sylvia Bauer Death on Screen: NZ Natural Burial directory
Catch up on Season 1 episodes
OUT OCTOBER 3, 2021
EPISODE 2
Death in Print: Before You Knew My Name, Meet: author Jacqueline Bublitz, Death on Screen: 'Dead to Me'
OUT OCTOBER 17, 2021
EPISODE 3
Death in Print: Listen: How to Find the Words for Tender Conversations, Meet: author Kathryn Mannix, Death on Screen: 'Phone of the Wind'
OUT OCTOBER 31, 2021
EPISODE 4
Death in Print: No Pressure, No Diamonds, Meet: legal executive Marie Austin, Death on Screen: 'I Told You I Was Ill: the Life & Legacy of Spike Milligan'
OUT OCTOBER 31, 2021
EPISODE 4
Death in Print: No Pressure, No Diamonds by Teri Dillion, Meet: legal executive Marie Austin, Death on Screen: 'I Told You I Was Ill: The Life and Legacy of Spike Milligan'
OUT NOVEMBER 14, 2021
EPISODE 5
Death in Print: H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald, Meet: poet & playwright Donna McLeod, Death on Screen: 'Living with Ghosts'
OUT NOVEMBER 28, 2021
EPISODE 6
Death in Print: Mortals: How the Fear of Death Shaped Human Society by Rachel & Ross Menzies, Meet: psychologist and author Rachel Menzies, Death on Screen: Lisel Mueller on 'The Marginalian'
OUT DECEMBER 12, 2021
EPISODE 7
Death in Print: No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood, Meet: author Bonnie Etherington, Death on Screen: 'My Beautiful Broken Brain'
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Deathwalker's Guide to Life is produced with the support of Creative Communities Tasman District
© Kerry Sunderland 2021-2023
© Kerry Sunderland 2021-2023