Bio
Jeremy Roberts is a resident of Napier, Aotearoa-New Zealand, where he lives with his wife and daughter. He MC's at Napier Live Poets, interviews poets on Radio Hawke's Bay, and is poetry editor for the VINES journal. His work has been published widely - including NZ Listener, Landfall, Takahē, JAAM, Poetry NZ, and Phantom Billstickers. Jeremy has performed and recorded poems with musicians in Aotearoa, Austin, Saigon, and Jakarta. His first poetry collection was 'Idiot Dawn' (poems 1981-87). 'Cards on the Table' was published in 2015 and 'The Dark Cracks of Kemang: The Bajaj Boys In Indonesia' was published in 2022, by IP Australia. He was awarded the Earl of Seacliff poetry prize in 2019. https://www.read-nz.org/writer/robertsjeremy
Jeremy Roberts
Trigger Poem
I'm bored with this little town, being jerked that way and this. I'm ready to throw myself
at the ground and miss. Suspicious of the day - that run-run-run - I'd rather take a tunnel,
avoid the midday sun. Shadows are where I find the most light. You see, I suffer from a
touch of stage fright. I love stories about zombies, vampires, and aliens - they reconfigure
my dull, urban cranium. I like things to be a little strange, images that can disarrange.
The senses, I mean - as Rimbaud explained. A red river cut from a ghastly rainbow is
something that might well have pleased Vincent van Gogh. A train off the tracks is normal
life - a parallax view of human strife. Plane rides are an easy flip. Walking your car is
ghost-riding the whip. There is a sense of urgency. The clockface ticks uncertainty.
Poem written in response to painting by Michaela Wilson – student at Sacred Heart College, Napier.