Leslie McKay's Writing

This collection holds poems by Christchurch writer Leslie McKay about the Canterbury earthquakes. Leslie writes, "I'm a poet, Christchurch born and bred. My work is informed by landscapes
from inner city Christchurch to South Brighton where I lived before the
earthquakes.
The Pirate House evolved from the aftermath of the February quake when I
saw my flatmates ukelele sitting beside the front door, alone and vulnerable
as Pirate Girl became. The piano had long been consigned to the garage
and my flatmate said the quakes would eject any boarders, hedgehogs
for example, which made us laugh on those disturbing incomprehensible days.
Notes From The Catastrophe is my record of places loved now lost, from
the elegant houses boarded up on the corner of Madras and Chester Streets
to Templar Street, off River Road in Avonside, where my grandmother lived
and my father grew up. It was one of the sweetest places on earth to my
brother and I. We met there to touch base at the end of last summer and
as we sat on the concrete apron of the pump house a passer by told us
the houses were to be demolished. Nothing is sacred in Christchurch
any more, not even democracy. But we have our memories, love, creativity
and integrity. Kia Kaha.