March 2022 sees the release of Michael O’Leary’s new poetry collection The Ballad of the Triple Track with a Foreword by New Zealand Poet Laureate David Eggleton.
Book Info
Title: The Ballad of the Triple Track and Other New Poems
Author: Michael O’Leary
ISBNs 978-0-473-61784-4 / 978-0-473-61785-1 / 978-0-473-61786-8
Price: $25.00 (pb) / $35.00 (hb) / $8.99AUD (ePub)
Extent: 72 pages
Format: 152mm x 235mm (paperback & hardback)
Publication: March 2022
Publisher: HeadworX
The Ballad of the Triple Track
The Ballad of the Triple Track collects together all of Michael O’Leary’s poems written since the publication of his Collected Poems 1981-2016. O’Leary’s poems continue to show linguistic departures. Sonnets, tributes and ballads to friends and family and musical influences are complemented by two longer poems. The first, The Ballad of the Triple Track, was written on the Paekākāriki Escarpment Walk, while the closing longer poem Yradeceba, is a long meditation finding O’Leary at his punning Joycean-best and draws on a wide-reading knowledge forming a 21st century prayer for the times we live in.
About the Author
Michael O’Leary is a poet, novelist, publisher, performer and bookshop proprietor. He writes in both English and Māori; and his influences are both inspired by Māori and Polynesian aspects of living in Aotearoa New Zealand as well as his Irish Catholic heritage on his father’s and his mother’s side. Born in Auckland in the year of the Tiger 1950, he was educated at the universities of Auckland, Ōtago (Dunedin), and Victoria University (Wellington) where he completed his MA and PhD theses. His Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop imprint (inspired by Andy Warhol’s ‘Factory’, the Beatles’ Apple label, and John and Yoko’s ‘Plastic Ono Band’), which he founded in 1984, has published some of his own prolific output, as well as many other New Zealand writers. Michael O’Leary is a trustee for the Poetry Archive of New Zealand Aotearoa (PANZA), a charitable trust dedicated to archiving, collecting and promoting New Zealand poetry. He now lives in Paekakariki, north of Wellington. Website: https://michaeloleary.wordpress.com
Comment:
“Without contraries there is no progression, wrote William Blake. Michael O’Leary’s poems are by turns bold, irreverent, winsome. A middle-of-the night housefire, an Australian bushfire, a wedding, a pandemic, the imminent destruction of a vast collection of old library books, birthdays, his father in prison: the whole of life is here. Indeed, the whole shaky motu is here, rattling like a line of train carriages: those old red rattlers pulled by a steam locomotive, the furnace of which is stoked by Michael’s exuberant word-play. Into your hands I commend this book, for the good of you and yours.” – David Eggleton, from the Foreword
Links for the new book live on Lulu.
eBook
The Ballad of the Triple Track (lulu.com)
Hardback
Shop the Independent Bookstore | Lulu
Paperback
Shop the Independent Bookstore | Lulu
ESAW publishes Covers, 50 Book Covers of the Earl of Art Workshop
December 26, 2021
ESAW’s final title for the year is a book called Covers exploring the history of its publishing output since 1984.
Covers explores a selection of 50 of the Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop book covers since 1984 containing artwork by artists.
Presented as something of an art catalogue with notes on each cover and artist included it comes with a Foreword by artist/writer Gregory O’Brien.
Some of those included are: Nigel Brown, Eion Stevens, Russell Chalmers, Roy Dalgarno, Rosalind Derby, Brian E Turner, Bryan Harold, Kathryn Madill, Gregory O’Brien, Brendan O’Brien, Gerrard O’Leary, Michael O’Leary, Seraphine Pick, Nigel Yates and Wayne Seyb.
The book concludes with the ESAW Bibliography 1984-2021 and some of Michael O’Leary’s B&W drawings.
Covers is a printed edition of 50 signed and numbered copies. Email: Michael O’Leary olearymichael154@gmail.com
Title: Covers: 50 Book Covers of the Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop
Author: Michael O’Leary
ISBN 978-1-86942-211-0
Extent: 126 pages
Format: paperback, 210mm X 260mm
Price: $80.00
Publication: December 2021
Publisher: Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop
ESAW publishes final mini book by Michael O’Leary
October 4, 2021
The final book in the ESAW Mini Series (No. 50) has been published.
Titled The Beatles in My Life, O’Leary closes off his signature Earl of Seacliff series in style with a mark of respect to The Beatles’ influence on his art and writing life. O’Leary will be launching the book at his reading with David Eggleton and Dinah Hawken in October at Paekakariki.
Title: The Beatles in My Life (No. 50)
Author: Michael O’Leary
Extent: 16 pages
Format: A6
Publication: October 2021
Publisher: Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop
About the Book
The final book in the mini series comprises poems and prose on the Beatles importance in O’Leary’s life, music and writings.
ESAW has published three more mini books by Bill Dacker, David Eggleton and Tony Hopkins in October 2021 in the relaunched ESAW Mini Book series that publisher Michael O’Leary says will stop at No. 50. Eggleton will be performing with Michael O’Leary at Paekakariki in October this year.
Title: They Lead Me (No. 47)
Author: Bill Dacker
ISBN 978-1-86942-207-3
Extent: 26 pages
Format: A6
Publication: October 2021
Publisher: Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop
About the Book
New shorter poems along with some longer musings on the life and art of the beloved singer and poet Leonard Cohen and his meaning and influence in Dacker’s life.
Title: Leaps and Bounds (No. 49)
Author: David Eggleton
ISBN 978-1-86942-208-0
Extent: 32 pages
Format: A6
Publication: October 2021
Publisher: Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop
About the Book
New satirical and political poems in a more performance-oriented mode from the renowned performer and current New Zealand Aotearoa Poet Laureate.
Title: In my Opinion (No. 40)
Author: Tony Hopkins
ISBN 978-1-86942-210-3
Extent: 20 pages
Format: A6
Publication: October 2021
Publisher: Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop
About the Book
Haiku from Wellington-based actor/storyteller Tony Hopkins.
ESAW has published two more mini books by Mark Pirie and Basim Furat in July 2021 in the relaunched ESAW Mini Book series that publisher Michael O’Leary says will stop at No. 50. He plans more final titles in the series by himself and others in the near future.
Title: Bono Mato Poeia: Rock Poems and Drawings (No. 42)
Author: Mark Pirie
ISBN 978-1-86942-201-1
Extent: 24 pages
Format: A6
Publication: July 2021
Publisher: Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop
About the Book
New rock poems and B&W line drawings by prolific Wellington poet Mark Pirie.
Title: Visions: New Poems 2007-2016 (No. 43)
Author: Basim Furat
Translators: Dr Salih J. Altoma, Rula Ghazal and others
Editor: Mark Pirie
ISBN 978-1-86942-199-1
Extent: 24 pages
Format: A6
Publication: July 2021
Publisher: Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop
About the Book
New poems in translation from Basim Furat, an Iraqi poet/travel writer currently living in Hamilton, New Zealand.
ESAW has published two more mini books by Will Leadbeater and Karen Morris-Denby in June 2021 in the relaunched ESAW Mini Book series that publisher Michael O’Leary says will stop at No. 50. He plans more final titles in the series by himself and others in the near future.
Title: Seaside Solitude (No. 45)
Author: Karen Morris-Denby
ISBN 978-1-86942-203-5
Extent: 24 pages
Format: A6
Publication: June 2021
Publisher: Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop
About the Book
Haiku and colour coastal photographs by writer/photographer Karen Morris-Denby.
Title: Commedia Dell’Arte 2021 (No. 44)
Author: Will Leadbeater
ISBN 978-1-86942-202-8
Extent: 16 pages
Format: A6
Publication: June 2021
Publisher: Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop
About the Book
Light verse and satirical poems from Auckland poet Will Leadbeater.
Michael O’Leary visits the Hawke’s Bay
May 23, 2021
Michael O’Leary visited the Hawke’s Bay in Autumn for a reading and an interview on Radio Kidnappers.
Jeremy Roberts sent us this report on the visit.
MICHAEL O’LEARY – GUEST POET AT HAWKE’S BAY LIVE POETS, MAY 10, 2021 by Jeremy Roberts
From the very beginning, Michael O’Leary came across like a poet of the people – bursting with life and experience. Clutching his beloved, Irish Wolfhound-headed tokotoko Siobhan, O’Leary surged forward like a literary freight train through the dark landscape of Hawke’s Bay – loaded with his passionate poems and those of his heroes. Wearing an Irish-green t-shirt and black trousers, he cut a striking figure: a man possessed – with long, white hair streaming behind him as he gained momentum – railing against injustices in the world, while showing how big a heart he had.
Whether it was a poem about the matchstick table that his dad made in Mt Eden prison (‘Each matchstick represented a fragment of his life’), an account of a drunken Saturday night with a mate (‘Drink! Drink! Drink! With the nebulous goal, / To find the limitless mind and soul’), or John Lennon’s song / poem ‘Working Class hero’ – or Leonard Cohen’s ‘Tower of Song’, O’Leary delivered his entire set with commitment, belief, and memorable antics. Life – pure and simple – is what made this writer who he is. His dedication to poetry (which also gave birth to the wonderful Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop) is something to behold.
Article copyright Jeremy Roberts
Michael O’Leary had a poem published in broadsheet, no. 27, May 2021, a special issue featuring the UK poet Richard Berengarten, who B E Turner and Michael O’Leary had published in the ESAW Mini Series. O’Leary’s sonnet is a comment on the global COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on the environment and our daily lives: http://broadsheetnz.wordpress.com.
Michael O’Leary
Sonnet for the Existential Crisies # 12 & 25
Yoko Ono once wrote ‘What’s the difference?’
In the days of Love in the Time of Covid Nineteen
In the lock-down daze: what’s the difference?
I’ll tell ya the difference was vast and extreme
In our human world of technology and greed
Of dreams and nightmares, of war and peace
The earth cried out this is more of what I need
Not running everywhere at speed and pace
There are birds in the sky now, not aeroplanes
The earth responds to the gentle rain that pours
Without acidic toxins polluting her mauri, her life-force
Cars no longer clog our streets and our lanes
The earth accepts from Cloud Nine and implores
People to look again before getting back on the horse
ESAW publishes rugby poem collection by Mark Pirie and Others
January 21, 2021
In December 2020, ESAW released Mark Pirie’s latest rugby poem collection: Sevens. Enquiries to: mpirie@xtra.co.nz.
Title: Sevens: Rugby Poems
Author: Mark Pirie and Others
ISBN: 978-1-86942-193-9
Price: $15.00
Extent: 24 pages
Format: 149x210mm
Publication: December 2020
Publisher: Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop
About the Book
Sevens is a collection of poems on the game of rugby and its players. Included is a sequence of poems ‘Three All Black Greats’ in honour of several of New Zealand’s finest rugby players.
An addenda features seven other rugby related poems Mark Pirie has recently been sent or has published as an editor/publisher. Poets included are Tony Beyer, Margaret Jeune, Jane Matheson, Bill Sutton and C A J Williams.
The book constitutes a seven-a-side game, two halves of seven poems each or two sides made up of seven poems each.
About the Author
Mark Pirie is a Wellington poet, editor and publisher. Pirie has published several mini books previously with ESAW, a biography Tom Lawn, Mystery Forward and written or edited a number of poetry collections, including the Winter Readings series and a selection of early poems, Giving Poetry a Bad Name.
Michael O'Leary 