Tuesday Poem: Wanaka holiday by Ruth Arnison

We cycled to Glendhu Bay and further, watching the
clouds jealously shadowing the mountains as they
threaded across the biro blue sky.

We rang home, spoke of golden willows lamp lighting
the night path along the shore, skeleton mountaintops
piercing the sky allowing studded stars to shine through.

They replied with yeh, not much, not a lot, interspersed
with weather reports, grunts, and a request for
coloured washing instructions.

We said we'd spent early mornings musing by the lake,
watching the mountains knitting together, getting a rise
out of the wind.

They wondered if the skate park had been extended,
was Llew's Hand still there and had we been
to Paradiso?

We were surprised. They hadn't loaned us so many
words for months. These nightly calls were almost
conversations.

We arrived home to empty tins, closed doors, limited
language. Before unpacking I googled wotif searching
for another holiday to break the silence.


Published with kind permission from the author.
Previously published in The Listener.


I am so very pleased to be able to share Ruth Arnison's honest, forthright poem 'Wanaka holiday' as this week's Tuesday Poem. It has had an incredibly successful and varied life with many accolades, previously being published in The Listener, gaining second place in a poetry competition and being included in the 2013 Level 2 NCEA English practice exam paper.

When I talked to Ruth about the success of her poem, she expressed surprise at how well-liked it has been, given its candid, truthful explanation of how their first holiday without their lads panned out. As with some rare instances of poetical inspiration, she related to me that it just seemed to know where it was going, so all she could do was to follow. How wonderful. Her family has had several holidays in Wanaka, and each excursion has led to Wanaka-themed poems.

Upon first encountering Ruth's candid poem, I was instantly enamoured with these 'almost conversations' nudged on, encouraged by the absence and distance. Sometimes distance creates communication that is more revealing, open and surprisingly present weaving its way through our relations with others. There is almost an absent bond. Ruth's poem, in my opinion, perfectly captures this and really spoke to me in all its frankness and sincerity.

Ruth is one talented and very humble lady. Her poems and short stories have been published in literary journals, anthologies and ezines throughout NZ, Australia, the UK and the US. She has had some fascinating jobs, from librarian, to chambermaid in a former royal hunting lodge (in Surrey), to youth hostel receptionist (in London), to process analyst, through to attendance officer (in Dunedin). As can be imagined, they have 'all been greet fodder' for her writing! She currently works part-time in administration for a research team at Dunedin's School of Medicine.

One of the incredibly generous and selfless 'hats' that Ruth wears is as organiser of Poems in the Waiting Room (NZ) - an arts in health charity that she set up five years ago. Poems in the Waiting Room distributes over 6,000 poetry cards every quarter to medical waiting rooms, rest homes, prisons and hospices throughout New Zealand's South Island and the lower North Island. When funding permits, each edition is also transcribed and bound into Braille booklets. It is an amazing publication and Ruth is the lady at the hub of the endeavour!

For more information on Poems in the Waiting Room (NZ), please take the time to check out here and here.

Also, do pop on over to the Tuesday Poem hub, where there is a wonderful array of poems and poets selected by the Tuesday Poem community this week. Enjoy!