touching what I love: peonies and excess

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11 March 2011

peonies and excess

Yesterday, peonies. I think of a dear friend who adores the voluminous flower, and of Jane Kenyon, who writes, 'These are not Protestant work-ethic flowers. They loll about in gorgeousness; they live for art, they believe in excess... They seem like the diva in her dressing gown after the opera - still glistening, but spent.'
Photo: Peonies in a painter's home, Masterton, New Zealand
Text: Excerpt from 'The Moment of Peonies' in the book,
'A Hundred White Daffodils' by Jane Kenyon (1947-1995)

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books by madeleine

my body, my business / oral history with new zealand sex workers / I contributed the photography

fifty stories fifty images / prose and photography of hong kong
delicate access / poems and photographs, with chinese translation by Luo Hui
something beautiful might happen / photography of hong kong by Shimao Shinzo, poetry by me
round - poems and photographs of asia / with Barbara Baker
china voices / non-fiction, with Lot Felizco/ Oxfam
my favourite thing / people say what they love, and why, a book and exhibition I initiated

online writing / images / music

Flash Frontier, NZ /

Sweet Mammalian, NZ /

Words for Christchurch earthquake published by Christchurch City Libraries /

Interview with art4d.asia, Singapore /

North, Prairie Schooner, USA /

One of the Best Places in this Country, photographic essay on USA, in Mascara Literary Review, Australia

Gaza and me published by University of Iowa /
A Cairo Song published by Arabic Nadwah /
From New Zealand - love + horses Tuesday Poem, selected by Tim Jones /
ten poems from Hong Kong published in Writing Macao /
two poems in Chinese published in Poetry Sky, USA /
Four poems from Singapore published in Softblow /
On cricket Mark Pirie's Tingling Catch / Jonny Brugh's The Second Test /
Water - a poem for Robert Logan published in A Fine Line, New Zealand /
The Magpie and the Mirrors book review by Alice Tsay, Cha - An Asian Literary Journal /
Drink long opinions full of violets book review by Bradley Winterton, Taipei Times /
Gems under the Topsoil book review by Cyril Wong, Quarterly Literary Review Singapore /
when he said my poem set to music / Composer: Samson Young / Conductor: Leon Chu / Soprano: Law Yuk Ling / Vibraphone: Louis Siu / Piano: Lam Hoi-cheong / Commissioned by Chinese University Chorus / Sponsored by CASH Music Fund / Premiere 28 March 2009 at Tsuen Wan Concert Hall, Hong Kong / Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNwqkJBYkSA / and the poem was also published in Broadsheet, Issue 7, New New Zealand Poetry

books edited by madeleine

around / soundpocket

Asian Performing Arts / Zuni Icosahedron
Australia Elements / Caroline Bouquet

Away from the Crowd / Jaffa Lam, Yeung Yang

Children in China / Michael Karhausen / Orbis Books, NY
China Voices / Oxfam
Driving Lantau / mccm creations
Foodscape / mccm creations
Grandma Grandpa Cook / mccm creations
Hanzigraphy / Mariko Tanagi / mccm creations

Heritage Continuance King Yin Lei / Development Bureau
Jullay, Ladakh-i / Chan Wai Fong
Kids Alike - A World of Children in Hong Kong / Oxfam

Love in the Time of Dementia

My Favourite Thing / Oxfam
Nathan Road / mccm creations
Of Hearts and Hands / Urban Council, Hong Kong

Of the Film / Christopher Doyle

Oliver The Quiet Firefighter / mccm creations
One Couple Two Cultures / Dan Waters
Our Home Shekkipmei / mccm creations
OutLoud Poetry Anthology / xtraloud press

OutLoud Too / mccm creations

Papa's Forest Bus / mccm creations
Photo Voices - Shenzhen Workers Speak /

Oxfam

Sweet Words / mccm creations
The Possible - 30 Stories / Oxfam

Through Our Eyes -

Vol. I A Photographic View

of Hong Kong by its Youth /

Vol. II My Light / Robert HN

Ho Family Foundation

Thus, Cuba / Chan Wai Fong

Water Wood Pure Splendour / Agnes Lam / Asia 2000

Why I am not a Painter / Christopher Doyle
Wild Men of the Metropolis / Yuen Che Hung

books published by madeleine

With Oxfam (1995-2012), Madeleine edited several books and assisted with publications. In 2005, she initiated the Independent Publishers of Hong Kong, and in 2002, co-founded Sixth Finger Press, a bilingual Chinese-English press. For Sixth Finger, she coordinated book tours throughout Asia, Europe and North America, and events for the Chinese- and English-speaking public in Hong Kong. The press published A Lover's Soliloquy / colo(u)r / The Crocodile who wanted to be Famous / delicate access / and Wings of Summer - Selected Poems of Zheng Danyi.