For the Poet Laureate




Michele Leggott's 18 month term as New Zealand's Poet Laureate has come to a close. She has spread the word far and wide in many and varied ways: poetry on the pavement; creating a digital poetry bridge between Florence and Aotearoa; the 1,000,000 poems for Matariki project - the list goes on... a remarkable laureateship that I'm sure will be a tough act to follow for the next talented wordsmith who gets the job.
Perhaps the strangest event that Michele initiated was a symposium in honour of a circus elephant named Molly who performed around the country in the 50s, but unfortunately died in Ohakune after eating the poisonous leaves of a tutu tree. Molly's skull is on display in the Biology Department at Auckland University.
A number of us are gathering at Michele and Mark's house tomorrow to help them polish off the last shipment of laureate wine courtesy of the Te Mata Estate vineyard in Hawke's Bay (tough job I know!!). Anyway, I wanted to make her something by way of congrats on a job supremely well done, so I made her a Molly the elephant. I hope she likes it...

Comments

Anonymous said…
I love it - what a wonderful gift. I also like the Molly story (but its sad).

My grandmother made me an elephant almost exactly the same when I was a child
Meliors Simms said…
Lucky Michelle to be given such a fine elephant. Of course completely deserved. She has been an amazing poet laureate, an inspiration to many people including me. I hope the high bar she has set for the creative dissemination of poetry becomes the norm from now on.
Giovanni Tiso said…
Lovely and oh so fitting.
kimberlee said…
I am sure you have given her molly by now ( I am uber behind in the blogging world) and I am sure she loved it. A very great and strange reason to make a stuffed toy, I though it would certainly be for a friends daughter or something. you just keep us on our toes
Bronwyn Lloyd said…
Thanks for your lovely comments everyone. We had a splendid evening and Molly the elephant went down a treat!
Carol said…
Beautiful elephant, reminded me of one I had and loved as a child. I also like your birds and I'm especially interested in your books. Great blog, thanks to Meliors for the link.

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