Peter Bland & Paula Green: Here Comes That Childhood Pond Again

This session from 2013 is titled after the first line of Peter Bland’s poem The Pond, Here Comes that Childhood Pond Again. The conversation between poet, writer, actor and playwright Peter Bland and poet, blogger, and anthologist Paula Green traverses the world of childhood, children’s poetry and writing with warmth, wit and word-play as they frame the world through a poet’s eye. In what is (as noted by Green) a rare opportunity to talk about children’s poetry at a book festival, Bland reads from his books The Night Kite and When Gulls Fly High and Green from Flamingo Bendalingo: Poems from the Zoo written in conjunction with 50 school children. Peter Bland moved to Wellington from his native Yorkshire and emerged on the local poetry scene alongside James K Baxter and Louis Johnson, as a member of the Wellington Group. Peter has published three collections of poems for children: The Night Kite, When Gulls Fly High, and in 2018 The Happy Garden. He has also worked as a character actor, winning Best Actor at the 1985 NZ Film Awards for Ian Mune’s comedy Came a Hot Friday, and co-founded Downstage Theatre in Wellington. Paula Green is a popular poet, reviewer, NZ Book Award judge and children’s writer. She has written a number of poetry collections and edited several anthologies and two popular poetry blogs, NZ Poetry Box for children and NZ Poetry Shelf for adults. Paula is active in visiting and touring schools to talk about poetry.