Anna Jackson

Attention-Starved Waif I have always been needy, wailing for water and laughs as far back as the days when I wore soft yellow and only had two star-coloured teeth. I read an article about turning need into rugged self-sufficiency by drying it out overnight in a low oven, switching it to convection just before bed. No, my mistake, that’s how you make fruit leather. The process I’m thinking of is longer and involves self-denial and stern language and whips, and it can’t really be done in the home, it has to be done everywhere you are alive, all the time, it takes place in the car and in court and when you’re having blood taken, and for it to work it will have to take over your sleep. In fact, it takes so long that it’s not practical to recommend it to anyone except the most patient self-improver, and the thing about patience is that it’s always a virtue that other people have.

I have four (!) poems in the new 'PN Review'. I think it's fair to share this one and say buy the mag if you're in the UK. =)

'Attention-Starved Waif' is a very me poem, obvs.

www.pnreview.co.uk/magazines/pn...

Talking Books — online book group — VOLUME

volume.nz/talkingbooks You can talk about Terrier, Worrier with a whole book club of readers, thanks to the very wonderful Volume Books! On Tuesday, March 10.

I remember this book! It was really spooky, my childhood was haunted by it, it cast a long shadow.

Given it's Long Covid Awareness month, it would be great to add that each infection and reinfection increases your risk of long term effects.

Oh to be in Kingston!

Poetry Shelf celebrates Ockham NZ Book Awards poetry longlist: a review and Emma Barnes picks a poem If We Knew How to We Would, Emma BarnesAuckland University Press, 2025 Poetry Shelf review Emma Barne’s new collection comes with an advisory note as some parts deal with suicide, depression …

and this extraordinary book nzpoetryshelf.com/2026/03/02/p...

A home for everybody Sign the open letter supporting the Green Party's plan to make sure everybody has a place they can call home.

#nzpol

action.greens.org.nz/housing_2026

Poetry Shelf celebrates Ockham NZ Book Awards poetry longlist: Grace Yee picks a poem Joss: A History, Grace YeeGiramondo Press, 2025 my father was not a gardener but he was a handsome widespreading form descended from along-lived drought-resistant species. every night he out-walked…

nzpoetryshelf.com/2026/03/01/p...

Catullus Simon Perris in his book on Euripides tries out an idea I find quite ravishing: “Dionysus is a god of identity transformation…Is it too fanciful, then, to see him as a god of translation,...

I LOVE these translations and I love the idea of a whole book of your 85 variants! I translate 85 quite often myself www.annajackson.nz/catullus.html, I mean, who doesn't, one way or another? It's kind of what life IS.

Daylight is brilliant!

I mean, it’s pretty fucking obvious to me…👀🤷‍♀️ #nzpol #OneTermGovernment

She’ll step into this room like a feisty

maunga dismantling into an outgoing tide...

Gregory Kan Clay Eaters Gregory Kan, Clay Eaters.   Clay Eaters is a beautiful book in every possible way, including the design, with the cover image beautifully capturing that sense of submerged, mysterious, lingering...

I love this collection! www.annajackson.nz/gregory-kan-...

I love the poem, and Paula's review of the collection ("There are the slippery currents of losing and finding one’s way in both past and present, the porous areas between here and there.")

A Letter to the Brevity Blog Community—Our Editors’ Wish List for 2026 DEAR WRITERS, We were thrilled with your responses to the Blog essay topics we proposed with our Wish List last year. So, we’re back with the Wish List for 2026. We’ve carried a couple topics over,…

Brevity (‘a journal of concise creative nonfiction’) is soliciting blog posts brevity.wordpress.com/2026/02/23/o...

Ministers continue to make decisions on fast-track projects after parties take donations linked to applicants One political scientist believes such donations to political parties could be perceived as creating a conflict of interest but official advice disagrees.

Just your daily reminder that Chris Bishop is both the chief fundraiser for the National Party election campaign and needs major donations, and the decision maker giving businesses access to the fast track process. www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

"If I wanted to achieve anything in particular with this poem, it was probably to at least gesture at that weird cavernous space between longing and horror."

72 Covid deaths in the last month

House

WTAF
"The objective of this Bill is to disestablish the Ministry for the Environment so that the Government’s desired machinery of government change can be implemented"
Penny Simmonds has got to go
#Election26 #nzpol
Submit now
bills.parliament.nz/v/6/27caed65...

I don’t know if this is really poetry or just how the mind works...

"We have a big overstayer problem, tens of thousands more than we suspected, and we have to arm [immigration officers] with the tools to be able to request information from people when they have a reasonable suspicion that they are in breach of their visa conditions."

The official advice from Immigration NZ is as of 1 July 2025, there were around 20,980 overstayers. They advise this is a “very small proportion of temporary migrants” given we see 3.6 million arrivals from non-NZ citizens each year - so 0.58%.
This quote (and Trump policy🫠) should be challenged.

"But a reasonable person would expect, where there is [reasonable] suspicion when they're executing their normal duties, that they'd be able to [do so in] people's houses." No! No, this is not reasonable!

"A lead always connects two animals, and the hierarchical relationship between them may not be what you would expect. I think there is some joy in the serendipitous meanderings of creatures without meaningful plans. Quite a lot of joy, in fact."

"The owner of the ferret, dragged about according to her mad mustelid’s whims, is in my view also an animal on a lead. I mean, we all are, in one way or another." Some of us (poets) more than others! I love both the poem and Erik's take on it:

This has to be stopped in its tracks! An immediate letter writing campaign to start with. Ugh, though I cannot, will not read another reply from Erica Stanford's office - essence of evil banality, probably written by AI.

ICE NZ????? I don't know if everyone has noticed quite how awful Erica Stanford is.
"Often they're in a situation where they are looking for a particular person, they find that particular person, and...there are other people who are either fleeing or acting suspiciously," Erica Stanford told RNZ.

We know, and don’t forget this when you rock up to vote at election 2026
#nzpol #OneTermGovernment

Companies could favour road as KiwiRail assets face decline KiwiRail has to meet budget cuts of $200 million over the next three years.

So National propose $250 billion of road projects, but KiwiRail has a budget cut of $200 million and will most likely have to close lines, shifting more freight onto the roads.

Seems Winston hasn’t been a very effective champion of railways.

www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

Your cold / cough is likely to be Covid

Pay equity change a 'real slap in the face' to women Comment: Ahead of next week's report, People's Select Committee member Steve Chadwick describes her shock at discovering the minister responsible for policy impacting thousands of women and their fami...

"The timeline has exposed what one submitter referred to as an 'orchestrated subterfuge'."

A huge scandal: how the wealthy & sorted Luxon/ Seymour/ Winston Class (with help from Willis, van Velden & Collins) pulled the rug out from under historically exploited workers newsroom.co.nz/2026/02/20/p...