Urban Safari: Writers Walk

For Urban Safari preparation this week we looked at the Writers Walk.

This is a series of sculptures along the waterfront which display excerpts from the writing of a number of New Zealanders about Wellington.

(Danielle had also learnt a new application for the chromebooks and we tried it out for the first time.)

We investigated the website (http://www.wellingtonwriterswalk.co.nz/) and thought about the sculpture we liked the look of most and the writing we like the most.

Here are some of our thoughts.

I think Bill Manhire’s sculpture is the best because it looks beautiful near the sea. (Precious)

I like Maurice Gee’s one because its a nice soothing piece of writing. (Christina)

Then out of the tunnel and

Wellington burst like a bomb.

It opened like a flower, was

lit up like a room, explained

itself exactly, became the

capital.

Maurice Gee

From Going West, Faber and Faber, 1992

I like Patricia Grace’s sculpture because it really descriptive and it about Wellington harbour. (Denise)

I love this city, the hills, the harbour, the
wind that blasts through it. I love
the life and pulse and activity, and the
warm decrepitude … there’s always an edge
here that one must walk which is sharp
and precarious, requiring vigilance.

From Cousins, Penguin Books, 1992

I like Denis Glover’s piece of writing called Wellington Harbour is a Laundry because it talks about how Wellington Harbour has a smooth ocean and is like an iron board and also it rhymes. (Valhalla)

The harbour is an ironing board;

Flat iron tugs dash smoothing toward

Any shirt of a ship, any pillowslip

Of a freighter they decree

Must be ironed flat as washing from the sea.

From ‘Wellington Harbour is a Laundry’ in Come High Water, Dunmore Press, 1977

I think Denis Glovers sculpture is the best because it is very creative and it stands out. (Jeremiah and Olef)

I like Bill Manhire because I have come across it when I am in Wellington and it really inspires people to push harder on themselves. (Salome)

I live at the edge
of the universe,
like everybody else.

Bill Manhire

From ‘Milky Way Bar’ in Milky Way Bar, Victoria University Press, 1991

I liked Sam Hunt’s piece of writing because it’s wonderful. (Christian)

Tall buildings no bigger than blocks on the floor,
Wellington afloat on the harbour haze …
You think of how most men spend their days
In offices as cramped as elevators

–From ‘Letter to Jerusalem 2’ in Collected Poems 1963 – 1980, Penguin Books, 1980