Did my first public reading in thirty years tonight. Celebrating the New Zealand electronic poetry centre's third birthday. I was a little bit rusty but it went quite well. Thirteen poets, a few poems each.

Tomorrow it's going to be much more full on. On National Radio in the morning, an hour program of music & talk, Playing Favourites, sort of like a desert island disks thing, what records would you like to take with you....Since it's only an hour, & only about 3-5 minutes per track, it means a lot of my favourites just won't make it. Decided to do music I'd referenced in my poetry that fit the time criteria, so have come up with Elvis Presley doing Mystery Train, the old Sun Records one; Aretha Franklin's (you make me feel like) A Natural Women which if any song can be described as my personal anthem this is it although I've never quite worked out the sexual duality in such a choice; Miles Davis' Milestones - I wanted Time after Time, the Cindi Lauper song, but amongst their 7 million Miles records, the N.Z. Broadcasting people didn't have that; Bach's Air on the G string because I love Bach, & there's a piece on this piece in Jukka & my forthcoming The Oracular Sonnets; & finally Youssou N'Dour & Neneh Cherry's 7 seconds. An eclectic choice, but I can tie them all in my work.

In the afternoon it's going to be a half hour reading, plus half an hour by another N.Z. poet, Graham Lindsay whose author's page is also being launched, & then a Q & A session with me giving the As to Martin Edmond's Qs, plus questions from the floor. Looking forward to this a bit more. Last night's reading was videotaped & recorded for posterity which meant a static reading. & I'm a mover.

Have hardly seen anything of Auckland yet.