Nice Pretty Things

'My poems don't start from ideas, but from bits of language, maybe a turn of phrase that's like a tune that plays over and over in my mind. A poem can often be like a game in my head where I want to think about something I don't fully understand. Recently a child said to me, “I'm not me. I'm someone else. I'm very strong. I'm Richie McCaw.” It's easy when you're four years old to play this sort of game. Writing is one way that as an adult I can take on a different persona. Some of these poems may suggest I live in rest home and that I have won the Katherine Mansfield Fellowship and lived in Menton. I did once spend a happy weekend in Paris, but I've never been to Menton and I have never won the Katherine Mansfield Fellowship. That doesn’t stop me wondering what it would be like to be selected for a magnificent prize and live in a remote city. I also wonder what it may be like one day to live in a rest home.’'

'quietly witty, contemplative and cleverly layered with anger, frustration and love' —Page & Blackmore Books

'biting, passionate, stunning and magical' —Hamesh Wyatt, Otago Daily Times

Rachel Bush (1941–2016) was born in Christchurch and grew up in Hāwera. Until 2003 she was a teacher of English at a secondary school in Nelson. Her first two collections of poetry were The Hungry Woman (1997) and The Unfortunate Singer (2002). She appeared in Faber’'s Introduction 3 as well as in anthologies and journals such as Sport, Landfall and the Listener.