uPflash: all that jazz this weekend

0

Just love the 2018 version of the National Jazz Festival programme – an abstractedly coloured edition.  And as the saying goes:  Think Jazz.  Think Easter.  Think Tauranga!   

I’ve been distributing the programmes on my regular driving route around the Western Bay.   A box of 300 programmes is heavy, very heavy!   Today it’s Wednesday and the box is almost empty and I can carry it with ease.    

So coming to Tauranga for one of town’s iconic events:  drive safely and have a fabulous time and

THINK JAZZ.   THINK EASTER.  THINK TAURANGA!

www.jazz.org.nz           for more information!

alchemy

SPOKEN WORD POETRY

Join us every second Wednesday of the month,

6.00pm to 8.30pm

     at the

   Black Sheep Bar & Grill

Cnr SH2 and Plummers Point Road, Whakamarama

 

Read your own poems or poems by your favourite poet.   Enjoy the power of the spoken word!

 

Phone:   07 571 8722   021 145 5810

 

Here’s a poem I wrote as part of a set prompted by my work in the area of domestic violence. At the time of this incident the processes regarding the criminal prosecution of family violence matters were not as thorough and organised as they are today. The Criminal Court would often not be aware of the severity of an assault against a woman or a child and unknowingly immediately release “offenders” back into the community. With the client’s consent, we “appeared” with a group of Refuge Workers and shared with the Judge the reality of the assault and opposed bail. The “offender’s” lawyer was even more enraged than his client.  

I’d checked with two senior colleagues about the unconventional appearance I proposed. One eventually wrote to me and told me such an appearance was not permitted. On the day, the other, a longtime advocate of the rights of everyone, told me to just do it: it was a new Judge and he’d be too scared to stop me: and he was.   On the second occasion this matter was called, I again asked this lawyer what I should do.   He laughed and told me, the Judge had heard me the first time; he had therefore acknowledged the importance of the information, my standing and right to be heard.   Everyone, including me, owes a debt to unconventional, persistent and justice-focused lawyers like the late Colin Amery.

 PROFESSIONAL COURTESY

My friend pushes me hard against

the wall as he rushes past

“You’re a witch with a pack of dogs”

spits from his contorted face

The women in the courtroom

foyer are both surprised and

accepting of his violence

Together we have returned

his client to the cell of custody

we have thwarted bail

We have shown the reality to

the newly installed judge and

the lawyer didn’t like it

after all he is a man

and we are only women

witches and dogs

Rosemary Balu

ARTbop

the Bay of Plenty’s creative arts magazine!

           read us online anywhere, anytime!

 

Share.

About Author

Leave A Reply