A new poem by poet and publisher Stacey Teague.

Love language

“Language does not pour out of me,

but is something I’ve entered” – Jack Underwood

I’m at home in the big air.

Under the surest sky I’ve seen.

I am touching your poem.

The one where you stood in the afternoon.

Stopped at a pedestrian crossing.

In movie magic lighting.

Moving towards me! Imagine!

And I do want a little forehead kiss.

In line at a medium tier rural café.

I will eat a huge slice of lolly cake.

You will drink a huge chocolate milkshake.

Everything will be just huge.

The feeling also enters the room.

And the river is there bending around us.

And we see ourselves reflected on the surface.

And I can hold my stomach to keep the pain inside.

And you will hold it from the outside.

Sometimes, by the river, I see my life as big as a movie screen.

Other times it is a loose stone to kick down the path.

On a loose-stone night I kiss the big air.

When I’m taking the bins out.

I touch the poem in a romance way.

When taking out the glass recycling.

Before walking over to your house.

In a romance way.

The clouds touching as the credits roll.

The Friday Poem is edited by Chris Tse. Submissions are currently closed.

The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.

AUCKLAND

1  The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle (Hachette, $28)

An odd number one, since this bestselling self-help book was released in 1997. However, due to this week’s Eckhart event in the city this has powered up the list to reign, now.

2  Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38)

The glorious new eco-thriller from the author of The Luminaries. Read warm (ecstatic) words of appreciation from Books Editor Claire Mabey over this way.

3  The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis (Knopf, $37)

Imagine 17-year-old egoist Bret Easton Ellis living in privileged 1980s LA (terrifying) and insert a fictional serial killer (even more terrifying). 

A spine-tingling review from The New York Times: “Ellis is a true literary craftsman, and the novel’s imagery is lush and gorgeous. Fans of his earlier fiction (‘Less Than Zero,’ ‘American Psycho,’ ‘Lunar Park’) will enjoy many of his signature strokes: murder, music, cocaine, Valium, obscene wealth, an unraveling narrator, brand names, palm trees, blood, stalkers, dogs, cults, disaffected teenagers, negligent parents.

“But there is an exciting new vulnerability in Ellis’s latest book, inviting the reader more profoundly into the emotional realm of the protagonist than he has with his previous characters (many of whom betray no signs of emotional vulnerability). Where ‘Less Than Zero,’ his 1985 debut set in a similar Los Angeles milieu, is ambivalent, and 2005’s ‘Lunar Park’ is coy in its autofictional flirtation, ‘The Shards’ feels earnest, at least emotionally. This is also Ellis’s sexiest book, and one senses for the writer a new freedom in the dimensions of love, eros and sensitivity.”

4  Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors (Bloomsbury, $31)

A glamorous New York City romp, following the relationship between young painter Cleo and older businessman Frank. 

5  Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (Penguin Random House, $37)

The new Gabrielle Zevin novel about friendship and gaming. Will you enjoy it if you aren’t a gamer? Emily of Planet Goodreads says “nope”. “Kirkus assured me that even those who “have never played a video game in their lives” will love this book, but I feel like that probably isn’t true. I found it a struggle just to make it through and I kept finding excuses to check my email, google something random that occurred to me, or just do household chores instead of reading this.”

6  Wawata – Moon Dreaming: Daily Wisdom Guided by Hina, the Māori Moon by Hinemoa Elder (Penguin, $30)

Guidance and wisdom from the Māori moon, by the author of Aroha.  You can read Jessica Hinerangi Thompson-Carr’s review right here.

7  How to Loiter in a Turf War by Coco Solid (Penguin, $28)

Our favourite debut local novel of the past 12 months. Cinematic, genre-defying auto-fiction about three friends navigating their lives in Tāmaki Makaurau. Spectacular review by Natasha Lampard can be read right here.

8  Bunny by Mona Awad (Head of Zeus, $25)

An amusing, gothic campus novel about a group of girls who all refer to each other as “Bunny”. Mona Awad’s so-so 2019 novel is riding the #BookTok wave.

9  The Axeman’s Carnival by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $35)

Poetically written, narrated by a cheeky magpie, and set on an Otago farm, we’re rubbing our hands together for Chidgey to win the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction in May. 

10  Golden Days by Caroline Barron (Affirm Press, $38)

The debut novel from the author of Ripiro Beach. From the publisher’s blurb: “After finding out that her husband has been cheating on her, Becky is mourning the end of her picture-perfect marriage at the bottom of a bottle. She thought she’d left that summer far behind, but the trauma of her present day brings back memories of the horrific night her brother died. With Zoe’s reappearance, Becky is forced to reconsider her interpretation of events, as well as where blame lies, her true nature and her place in the world.

Music, clubs, art, collaboration, spirituality, sex – Golden Days is a thrilling and nostalgic ride into the past, where nothing is as it seemed.”

WELLINGTON

1  Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38)

2  Ruin by Emma Hislop (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $30)

The debut short story collection by Taranaki-based writer Emma Hislop. Pip Adam says, “Ruin is a machine for the exposure and exploration of power. It turns the intricacy and activity of relationship over in the cogs of its deft craft. It’s an incredible confirmation of what short fiction can do and be: beautiful, confronting, validating.”

3  Histories of Hate: The Radical Right in Aotearoa New Zealand edited by Matthew Cunningham, Marinus La Rooij, and Paul Spoonley (Otago University Press, $50)

The publisher’s blurb tells us what’s included: “Colonisation, antisemitism, discrimination against Chinese immigrants, anti-communism, skinhead gangs, support for white minority governments in southern Africa, opposition to Māori Treaty rights, the religious right, and recent events such as the 15 March 2019 terrorist attacks in Christchurch and the rise of Covid-19 conspiracy theories are all covered.”

4  Rat King Landlord (Renters United! Edition) by Murdoch Stephens (Lawrence & Gibson, $2)

A big, lovely, illustrated new edition of cult novel Rat King Landlord, free for renters when bought online, or $2 from your local bookstore. 

In a recent interview with The Spinoff about the reissue, Éimhín from Renters United said, “Under the surface of what’s a surreal and bitterly funny novel lies a deeply uncomfortable fact: our society fundamentally privileges those who own homes over those who do not. Housing is a human right, and we’ve allowed it to become a commodity at the expense of the most vulnerable in our communities. Renting as it stands is inherently exploitative and dehumanising. That has to change.”

5  Paper Aeroplane: Selected Poems 1989-2014 by Simon Armitage (Faber, $28)

Simon Armitage is the British Poet Laureate, and Paper Aeroplane is a collection of his best poems over 25 years. A factoid: the honorary position of Poet Laureate began in 1668, and has been held by poets including Lord Tennyson, William Wordsworth, and Ted Hudges. It’s tradition that along with a salary, the Poet Laureate is awarded a barrel of sherry. 

6  Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (Doubleday, $37)

A bright-shining bestseller about a 1960s mother and chemist. 

7  Fear: New Zealand’s Hostile Underworld of Extremists by Byron C Clark (HarperCollins, $40)

“Incels, and others in the manosphere, long for a world where they have access to and control over women. But the ideal of an obedient mid-twentieth-century (or earlier) housewife appeals not just to men but also to a number of women who openly embrace the idea of being a ‘#tradwife’. This is where the ‘traditional’ lifestyle of a home and family is seen as being denied to a certain demographic – a situation they blame on feminism; their anti-feminism becoming an entry point into the alternative right. 

“I’d not really considered the possibility of anti-feminist women before this trend. We’ve all met women who reject feminism, but I thought of them as an anomaly. However, Western feminism hasn’t been a good fit for every woman.”

Read more of this excerpt about women in the alt-right – right here on The Spinoff.

8  The Axeman’s Carnival by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $35)

9  Privilege in Perpetuity: Exploding a Pākehā Myth by Peter Meihana (Bridget Williams Books, $18)

Massey University senior lecturer in Māori history Peter Meihana has released a new book about how the idea of Māori privilege continues to be used in order to maintain power imbalances. From Stuff: “It explores the paradox of how despite being rendered landless and politically marginalised, Māori were still somehow considered privileged. Meihana said that notions of privilege deployed in the 19th century have been redeployed in the late 20th and early 21st centuries by anti-Treatyists who see any form of Māori development as a form of privilege.”

10  Bunny by Mona Awad (Head of Zeus, $25)