I've just been doing some tidying in my computer (it's amazing how much invisible disorganized mess there is..) and found a mysterious forgotten folder with some of my early poetry from when I was about 14. I was just starting to write music and was performing my poetry at the Wunderbar in lyttelton on cabaret nights. I couldn't have found a better performance school really..
Anyway, there's some pretty wonderful stuff coming up and the Iceland tour is mostly booked! I'm playing next weekend on Friday 30th at the Grosvenor bar with Dr Sanchez - who also desiged this awesome poster:
We will be doing a few songs together too! so do come if you're in the area ;)
Next month - May is New Zealand music month! and there are so many things on to see, do and listen to! I'll be playing at AL's bar on the 28th! (more info on that soon)
But I thought I may as well share one of my early poems with you.. (maybe even one a week during music month..) This one below is called Purple woman. I remember writing it. I was sitting on the beach in Tumbledown bay.. (and I remember I wrote it with a pencil and the sun was setting..)
Purple Woman 26 / 12 / 1997
I was alone, in a place far away, and I had no reason to run. So I sat down, on the velvet smooth grass, and was bathed in the light of the sun.
I had come there to think, in silence, alone, not to be noticed or seen. And then I was taken by awe, and amase, as the copper sun, turned green.
The clouds went red, and the sky went black, and the grass went brittle and dry. And oh, how I wished, that someone was there, to prove that it was not a lie.
The hills opened up, and a woman stepped out, shining of power and might. Her skin was purple, her eyes were blue, and her hair was snowy white.
I walked upto her, I guess she got scared, c'os she screamed, then she ran for the hill. Then she disappeared, and everything changed, and the world was once again still.
I was confused, had it been true? my mind had come to a spin. I thaught I´d experienced feelings towards the woman wit purple skin.
I went back home, and went to sleep, I never mentioned that day. C'os who would believe, that the sun had turned green, It made no difference, anyway.
Over the years I be came obsessed with the purple beuty I'd seen, I painted her picture and dreamed of her eyes, a godess, a leader, a queen.
I longed to see her, and so I went back to the hills and the velvet smooth grass. I sat down and I waited for her and I let the time slowly pass.
An hour went by and I knew that she knew that I'd come to see her that day, but this time was diffrent, she came towards me and she didn´t run away.
She came up close and took my hand With nails as sharp as knife my mood was mellow, I was in a trance in her arms right then was my life.
Her hair blown back, in the wind so white, so clean, so fresh, I felt her lips upon my skin and her teeth sink into my flesh.
A tingling sensation, not terror, not pain I feel blood running down my skin as she feeds on my body, eating my mind I feel numb for there´s not much within.
My blood on her lips, my blood on her hands, my blood running down her breast, her beastly ways, her gnashing of teeth, I feel this is my final rest.
so all that is left, in a puddle of blood, is my quivering, lonely heart, lying under the sky so black, and the green sun, just like at the start.
And now I´m up here, on the other side, looking down at the hills and the grass, looking at him, he's waiting for her, and I let the time slowly pass.
I wish I could tell him, to go back home, ti hide, to flee, to run. To not be charmed by the purple beast, or the rays of the shining green sun.
Hera Hjartardóttir.
And here's a photo from then-ish. Taken at the cranmer centre in a semi-abandoned stairwell where I used to go and write music and practice (I didn't know there were offices upstairs at the time, and they could hear me - no one ever came through that way..) Aah the baggy pants with reflective strips.. and the spaceish-smurf shoes that I used to love..
Ok now I feel like I've just flashed you all...
Please do come say hi and leave a comment if you like on twitter..
xoHera